


Final Fight 3

by The_Head_In_Charge



Series: Final Fight series [2]
Category: Final Fight (Video Game), Street Fighter
Genre: Beat 'em up, Crimes & Criminals, Gang Violence, Gangsters, Gen, Martial Arts, Organized Crime, Revenge, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Head_In_Charge/pseuds/The_Head_In_Charge
Summary: An attack on Metro City catches the attention of Mayor Mike Haggar. He, along with Guy, and Lucia Morgan, an MCPD detective, join a mysterious man named Dean to take the fight to the Skull Cross Gang. Dean also has some unfinished business with the Skull Cross Gang.
Series: Final Fight series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629040





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a novelization of Final Fight 3. I will note that I might do Final Fight 2, but I have to see how I will do it first.
> 
> I also must note that the first two chapters were written in 2015. I had only recently gotten back to it. So you'll see a difference in how I wrote the first two chapters and the subsequent ones.

_After the Mad Gear gang was destroyed, the citizens of Metro City finally thought their nightmare was over._

_But without Mad Gear to control the underworld, the street gangs fought amongst themselves for power over the city._

_In the end, the Skull Cross gang reigned supreme._

_Several months later, Mayor Mike Haggar got a call from an old friend…_

A plane arrived at Metro City International, coming from Japan. On that flight was Guy, an old friend of Mike Haggar's and one of the heroes who took part in the stand against Mad Gear years before.

Guy got off the plane, carrying a bag with his things, and wearing a black jacket over his clothes. Guy walked along the airport and needed to walk around after being on an airplane for hours, until he saw a payphone somewhere.

Guy walks up to the payphone and decides he wants to make a call to someone. There is only one person who he knows who is still in Metro City at this point. He looks in the phone book to find the number to Metro City Hall. He finds the number and makes a call.

The phone rings and someone answers. "Hello, Metro City Hall, this is Janet speaking."

"Hello, may I speak with Mayor Mike Haggar?" Guy said.

"May I ask who is calling? He a little busy right now. May I take a message?" Said Janet, Mayor Haggar's secretary.

"I am old friend of his, my name is Guy," said Guy.

"Guy? Oh, yes, I think I remember hearing about you before," Janet said. "You know, I could try to put you on his line right now. Hold on."

Janet calls Haggar through the intercom. "Hello, Mr. Haggar, I have a caller here for you. He says his name is Guy."

Haggar is surprised to hear that name. He hasn't seen Guy in a while, though they have written to each other from time to time.

"Send him through," Haggar said.

Haggar's secretary sends Guy through to his line.

"Hello, Guy, it's been a while," Haggar said.

"Yes, it has, Mike," Guy said. "I was wondering if you would like a visit. I'm back in town and I want to see you."

"Sure, that sounds good to me, I'll send a cab over," Haggar said. "Where are you calling from?"

"I am at Metro City International Airport, I just got off my flight," Guy said.

"Stay put, Guy, I'll call a cab service over, it's all on me, don't worry," Haggar said.

Guy stands outside to wait for the cab that Haggar sent for him and then sees it. The cab driver asks him if he is the man he was sent for. Guy responded him with yes. They were on their way to city hall.

Guy had arrived to city hall. He walks up the stairs into the building, when a receptionist asks him who he is.

"My name is Guy, and I am here to see Mayor Mike Haggar," said Guy.

"Is he expecting you?" said the receptionist.

"Yes, I spoke to him on the phone earlier," Guy said.

The receptionist looks at the list of appointments and she points out that there is an appointment between Guy and Haggar. "Oh, yes, right this way, sir."

Guy goes towards Haggar's office and approaches Janet and tells her that he is here to see Haggar.

"Oh, sure, he's in his office, come right this way," Janet said as she pointed to the direction of the office and opened the door for him.

Guy walks into this office with Haggar sitting at his desk.

"Hello, long time no see, Guy," Haggar said. "How did your training go?"

"Pretty well, I think I learned a few new moves," Guy said. "I also tried fighting some other threats, and I also came across a couple of friends of mine, like Cody and Maki."

"Cody? Maki? How are they doing?" Haggar said. "How did you find Cody? I thought he was locked up."

"Let's just say we crossed paths in unlikely situations," Guy said.

Meanwhile, Lucia Morgan, an attractive detective, rolls around in a squad car and sees that some buildings are up in flames and several properties are destroyed.

"What the hell is going on here?" Lucia said to herself. She then picks up the radio dispatcher to call for backup.

"Calling all cars and dispatch, this is Detective Morgan," Lucia said. "I have a few officers down, they seem like they're in critical condition. Please send in some more support."

Lucia can't believe what she is seeing. From a distance, she sees a familiar face leading to what looks like a break at a prison. The familiar face is Dave, a fellow cop. She should have known that a crooked cop was working for the Metro City Police Department. She notices someone else near Dave, and that man is the head leader of the Skull Cross gang, Marshal Black. He was being helped by his second-in-command, who is wearing a green long coat and has long hair.

Lucia drives over to city hall with the sirens blaring. When she gets there, she comes through the door and flashes her badge to the receptionist, telling her that she needs to speak to the mayor as soon as possible. The receptionist points her in the direction that she needs to go.

Outside, a muscular man with blonde hair, wearing a white tank top and black pants with some kind of straps near his shoulders, sees all the destruction going on. He follows Lucia into the building.

Meanwhile, Guy and Haggar look outside the window and notice a fire erupting.

"What the hell is going on?" Guy said.

"I don't know, but I have to find out," Haggar said.

Lucia rushed right into his office. "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor! I'm Detective Lucia Morgan of the Special Crimes Unit. The city is under attack!"

"What?!" Haggar reacted to what he had just heard.

"We have a huge riot that just broke out in the center of town!" Lucia said. "If we don't move quickly, they're going to rip Metro City apart!"

Haggar looks to Guy.

"Guy, I'm going to need your help," Haggar said.

"You got it, Mike," Guy quickly agreed.

The mysterious man from before walks into Haggar's office, standing near Lucia.

"Wait a minute, Mr. Mayor, I can lead you to them," said the man.

"Who the hell are you?" Lucia said looking towards the man.

The man responds to Lucia. "Does it really matter? All you need to know is that I know where they're headed."

Haggar, Guy and Lucia look at the man and decide that they should trust him, at least for now.

"I haven't got a choice so I'll trust you," Haggar said. "But if you're leading me into a trap, I'm going to grind you into the pavement."

"Fair enough, but you can trust me, sir," said the man.

Haggar told everyone in the room that they should meet up on the streets soon. He needs to prepare himself a little. Guy, Lucia and the man all agree.

"Let's hit the streets," Haggar said.

"I'm on my way," Guy said.

"Yes, sir!" said Lucia.

The man didn't say anything, but he went out to go meet up with the others.


	2. An Explosive Situation/Site of the Riot

The four agreed to meet up at the site of the riot, which was near the police station, but they had to handle some other things first.

As the four had separated, Haggar went up to his assistant Janet. He had placed his hands on the counter of her desk, looking directly at her.

"Janet, I'm going to be away for quite a bit," Haggar was really straightforward with what he was telling his assistant. "If I get any calls, just tell them I am out. I don't know if I will be back for this, but wish me luck."

Janet looked at Haggar all concernedly, and then shifted her eyes to floor, not knowing what to say about that.

"Mr. Haggar, I know you have done things like this before," Janet said. "But I want to wish you a lot of luck, because last time you did get lucky, but then I also remember that you went outside of this country to handle some other stuff. But if you don't come back, I want you to know that I enjoyed working for you."

"Thank you, Janet," Haggar said. "But I'll do my best to come back from all of this."

"Are you ready, Mike?" said someone from behind Haggar, who then turned his head to see who was behind him.

"Yes, I am, Guy, but we need to go to my house first," Haggar said.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Metro City, Lucia sat on her bed in her apartment with her badge in her hand. She stared at her badge with so much confusion about what she is about to endure.

_I owe Mayor Haggar for this after I was charged for corruption a while back, but I had a feeling I was being set up, and it wouldn't surprise me if Dave was the one who did it. I am going to make that guy pay, and I am going to do whatever it takes to take down the Skull Cross Gang._

Lucia continued to look at her badge and shook her head. Knowing that she was about to embark on a rather dangerous adventure, Lucia still held on to her badge but at such a slow speed did she set her badge down with her eyes looking down, but then started to look up as she developed a scowl on her face.

She then got up and headed for her dresser to change out of her police uniform into something she felt more comfortable fighting in.

Oh, these will do. Lucia thought that she found something suitable for the fight she is about to face.

After a few minutes, Lucia had put on a pair of brown fingerless gloves and was dressed in a pair of cutoff denim shorts, blue sports bra, an open brown vest and a pair of blue and white sneakers.

Okay, let's do this. I'm on my way.

Lucia gripped her right hand with her left hand, as she headed towards the door to her apartment, ready to fight the Skull Cross Gang.

Right after she left, she went back into her apartment. She stormed right into her bedroom. She turned her head to face the table where she left her badge.

I might need this.

Lucia gripped her badge and placed it into a pocket in her shirts. She was then on her way for sure this time.

* * *

At Haggar's house, Haggar had changed into his fighting gear, but looked in the mirror with

I can't believe that I am doing this again. First time was with the Mad Gear Gang, second time was in Europe and Asia with other members of the Mad Gear. Now I am dealing with another gang? This is some shit that needs to be done, but man, how long could Metro City go without having a crime problem?

"Hey, Mike," said a voice coming from downstairs. "Are you ready?"

Haggar reached for valve on the sink and placed an open hand as the water was running, which he then ran his hand on his face, giving him one final step to his preparation, looking at the mirror with a glower of determination.

"Yes, Guy, I'm ready, let's do this," Haggar said.

Haggar walked downstairs and looked Guy directly in the eye, "I can't believe we're doing this again. When will criminals learn not to mess with this city?"

Guy replied, "I know what you mean, but I had dealt with people much worse than gangs for a while, like some dictator wanting to rule the world with some strange power he has."

"That guy who we met earlier in my office better not be bullshitting us, or we'll have to make an example of him," Haggar said. "We could really use someone like Cody on this, but I don't know where he is. He could be anywhere after that prison riot happened."

"We'll be fine, we just have to trust that cop and that one guy," Guy said.

The two then reached out their hands and as their hands got closer, they gripped each other's thumbs, wishing each other luck in their forthcoming battle.

"Let's go," Haggar said, as he and Guy went to his car, and they then drove off towards the site of the riot.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lucia is also on her way, in the squad car that she drove earlier. She is ready for this fight.

At the site of the riot, the mysterious man from earlier was sitting on some steps, waiting for Haggar, Guy and Lucia to come meet up with him. While waiting for the others, he reaches for his pocket and what he got out is his wallet. But the reason he got his wallet wasn't related to money, but rather that he had a special picture inside.

He flipped to the photo of his mother, father, brother, sister and himself.

_I'll make them pay for what they did to all of you._

Lucia drove around to the site of the riot, where she saw that man from earlier sitting.

"What the hell?" Lucia's eyes glared at the sight of everything that has gone on, while the riots have sort of died down a bit, there were still plenty of lootings going on and officers down.

"I must have some more help come in," Lucia said while reaching for the radio in the car. "Hello, this is Detective Morgan. I need some help down here. We have some officers who need medical attention, and they need it now, I repeat, they need it now!"

Lucia saw the man and got out of the car. Lucia set her foot right on the pavement. Lucia turned her head to her left while she still stood behind a halfway open car door, noticing that Haggar and Guy had arrived on the scene to begin their battle.

Lucia walked towards Haggar and Guy.

"Hello, Mr. Haggar," Lucia said, who then looked at Guy. "And what is your name? I don't believe I got your name."

"My name is Guy, I am an old friend of Mike Haggar's," Guy said. "We have gone through a fight like this before, a few years ago, against the Mad Gear Gang."

"Oh, I think I remember hearing a lot about that," Lucia said. "I think Cody Travers fought along with you two then. I am an old friend of Cody's."

Haggar wasted no time in interrupting their introduction, "Listen, Detective Morgan—"

Lucia replied, "Please, call me Lucia."

"Okay, Lucia, I appreciate what you're doing for us," Haggar said. "I know a good cop when I see one, especially after having dealt with crooked cops in the past."

"Thanks, Mr. Haggar," Lucia said. "I owe you for what you did for me. It's time I repay your debt."

The three then approach the man.

"Hello, if all of you are here to bring down the Skull Cross Gang, I will help you get to them," said the man.

"Wait a minute, mister, can you at least tell us your name?" Lucia said.

The man replied, "First of all, my name is Dean, and there is no time, we have a riot going on and I see members of the Skull Cross Gang tormenting this area as we speak. Now let's get going!"

With the wreckage of police cars surrounding the area, along with other signs of destruction in the group's path, like broken windows on several buildings, Haggar and the other three look at Dean with looks of reluctance, but with what they are about to face, they have no choice but to trust him.

Haggar looked around and saw various street thugs trashing the area, but the one person who was puzzled about everything was Lucia.

"It seems that this area is where the riots had mostly taken place. Something doesn't seem right about this," she said. She then looked right in front of her and noticed where all the rioting led to, the Metro City Police Department precinct. "No, this can't be happening. Follow me, everyone"

The quartet started to walk in a certain direction, only to see a couple of street thugs hanging around the area of the riot, laughing about what is going on. One thug had a Mohawk, wore a dark gray tank top and wore dark gray jeans. The other thug had a regular haircut, but wore a green vest and some green pants, along with white t-shirt under the open vest. As the four approached the two thugs, one of them shifted his eyes towards them and reached for the other guy's shoulder, whom then turned his head towards them, realizing that the four have this suspicious vibe about them, considering how there are two familiar faces among the group.

"Hey, G, isn't that the guy who we tried so hard to get to join us," the thug dressed in gray said. "Also, isn't that our mayor?"

"You know, I thought I remember those guys, Billy," said the thug dressed in green.

The two thugs figured what the four were up to, considering how they may be familiar with the fact that Haggar had fight the Mad Gear Gang before.

"Hold up, where do you think you're going?" Billy said. "This is our turf."

"Back off, asshole," Lucia said. "I am a cop, and this is OUR turf!"

Once she said that, she laid a quick kick to Billy's face, and another few before laying a backhand to his face which knocked him down.

Billy sat up with right hand near his face, feeling that he had just been taken down by a woman, and noticed a bruise near his jaw.

"Get that bitch!" Billy said. G and some other thugs to storm their way to the four vigilantes, however, as they ran towards them, they were met with a slide attack from Dean.

Johnny, a thug who dressed similarly to G, but wore a beret and sunglasses, tried to attack Dean from behind, but Dean gripped Johnny's arm, laying in a punches to the gut and delivered an uppercut, which made a static-y sound. Guy, Lucia and Haggar noticed a flash of electricity wrapped around Johnny's body, as he fell to the ground and convulsed from the impact of the shock.

"What on earth?" Haggar said, with his jaw dropped a bit.

Distracted by what he just saw, a thug approached him trying to seize a chance while Haggar was in a bit of a trance, tried to attack him, but right when a fish was approaching his face, Haggar quickly broke out of the trance and grabbed the thug by the wrist and delivered a brutal clothesline to him.

As they walked down the corridor leading to the front steps of the police station, a few other thugs hung around there despite the rioting taking place.

"These two should be a piece of cake," Guy said, as he had not fought much so far. But as he ran toward the two thugs, who then looked towards Guy with shock, as he jumped up and delivered a spinning dropkick to both of them, causing them to fall to the ground.

After having knocked them both out, Guy then looked up and noticed from the opposite direction, another criminal with claws, Dirk, approached the others. Guy, who was full of energy at that point, ran towards Dirk and flipped over him, grabbing him and slamming him to the ground, with Dirk landing on his neck, knocked out from what just happened.

Lucia looked all around her, noticing that there were several squad cars in bad shape, with the windows having been shattered and a lot of dents on the cars, she could only guess what could be going on inside the police station. There was only one way to find out.

"We have to get inside," Lucia said, worried that there may be some trouble in there.

The four entered the police station, which was surprisingly in decent shape, except for a couple of things. Several Skull Cross members were loose from the holding cells, and the other being that there was a big hole in the back of the holding area.

The Skull Cross thugs wasted no time trying to attack the four vigilantes, but they were not going to stand down, especially Lucia, who had just seen the precinct she works at in bad shape, and several of her fellow police officers in a state of hurt.

Lucia ran and jumped delivered a needle kick to one of the thugs, and then ran to another thug and did another flying kick, but this time it set him on fire. Consumed with a lot of rage, she just went right for any criminal who was lurking the hallway of the holding area.

Dean, looking at her with a lot of amazement, as well as concern, decided to join in on the fight to help out his colleague. He felt that despite all of her determination, she may not have all the strength to single-handedly take down every thug.

One thug started to get a little frisky with Lucia. One grabbed her from behind and started feeling her buttocks and breasts, which further enraged her, causing her to elbow him in the gut. She turned around and kicked the guy with her right leg, quickly kicked him with her left leg, then back again in quick succession, which sent him flying a bit, but Lucia still continued kicking as started getting air-time herself. The kicks were so fast that the guy was knocked out after all of that, especially after getting fresh with her.

Dean delivered a few hits to a thug who was dressed similarly to Johnny, but shocked him in the process, leaving Lucia, Haggar and Guy confused, even though Lucia delivered a kick that lit a guy on fire earlier.

Lucia and Dean, along with Haggar and Guy, were done with everything there. The only thing left for them to do was to do see where that big hole in the back of the hall led to. The four approached the hole, only to see that they are now near the gas station that was adjacent to the police station.

The windows to the convenience store were broken, displaying that the riots had occurred there as well, same with the car that was left there. Surprisingly enough, there was no sign of fire or a sign of leakage from the gas pumps.

"What do you think is going on here?" Haggar said.

"I don't know," Lucia said, who then noticed a familiar face sitting on the hood of a semi-truck. "But I am going to find out."

Lucia wasted no time in approaching the person on the truck. However, this person was someone who Lucia had worked with before, as he is a cop. This person was Dave, who is a crooked cop, working with the Skull Cross Gang.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Detective Lucia Morgan," Dave said, while still sitting on the hood. "Well, aren't you looking good?" Dave noticed what she was wearing. "I never thought that you had that kind of a body on you, but damn."

"Shut up, Dave!" Lucia said, looking at her former colleague with such venom in her eyes. "I can't you would stoop this low to help out scum like the Skull Cross Gang."

"Helping them out? You think I'm trying to get in? I'm already a member, and I make a lot more money working for them than I ever did working for the MCPD," Dave said. "Besides, I wouldn't be talking about corruption when it was you who got busted on a charge of drug possession and other corruption charges."

"Can the bullshit, Dave, I know it was you who framed me at that time," Lucia said. "You always had it in for me, but I was always on to you. Now I see that I was always right about you."

"What are you going to do, bitch?" Dave taunted her, feeling like she is no real threat to her.

Dean, Guy and Haggar look at their partner with a lot of concern, being that she is a lot smaller than Dave, but Lucia, consumed with more rage and emotion than before, felt that this was her fight.

Haggar leaned over to the other two guys, "If she gets hurt, wait for my signal to jump in."

Guy and Dean nodded their heads at Haggar's suggestion.

Dave jumped off the truck, and then reached for his baton. Dave swung his baton into the palm of his left hand a few times, and then gripped the handle of the baton, twirling it a little.

"Okay, let's do this!" Dave said.

Dave looked at his former colleague and then jumped up high in the air. Lucia then looked up and noticed that he was landing in her direction.

Oh shit. She thought and quickly jumped out of Dave's way. Dave then landed on his butt, initially intending to crush her, but ended up hurt himself in the process.

With all of the rage inside her, Lucia wasted no time laying in a few attacks to him. With her quick speed, she delivered a few kicks and a back elbow to his face. She then jumped up and laid an arc kick to him, knocking him down in the process.

Lying on the ground, Dave then looked directly at Lucia with a lot of anger. He quickly got up, with the baton still in his hand and whacked Lucia right in her stomach. Lucia yelled, "OOH!"

Visibly in pain, Lucia fell to the ground, with her hand on her stomach. She moved her hand away from that spot, and noticed that her stomach was bruised. Seizing the opportunity of seeing Lucia in pain, Dave swung the baton towards her head, but she quickly ducked and rolled over, delivering a sweep kick towards Dave's legs. Dave then fell back, causing the baton to fall right out of his hands and his whole body fell to the ground.

Dave saw where his baton was and reached for it, but a blue got into his way. Dave's eyes shifted up, and saw Lucia looking directly in the eye, with such a venomous scowl. She then shook her head, and then kicked the baton away.

Guy stepped in and picked it up, just to make sure that Dave doesn't try to use it. Distracted by the fact that someone has his baton, Dave walked towards Guy to try attacking him in order to retrieve it, only to be thrown as he got closer. Lucia, with all of the strength she had, threw Dave over her shoulder, which surprised her, considering how much bigger he is than her.

"It's time to take you down!" Lucia yelled.

Dave got back up, "Bring it on!"

Lucia went right to delivering these quick kicks to him, which sent him airborne and was still kicking him and delivered the final blow by feeding him a flame kick, which was enough to keep him down. Surprisingly, as he got to the ground, he wasn't on fire anymore.

Haggar, Guy and Dean approached Lucia as she stood over Dave's body.

"Is he dead?" Haggar said.

"No, he is not dead, he is still breathing, but we need to know some things, ther is something he is not telling me," Lucia said.

Dave regained consciousness, and noticed the four standing above him.

"What is it that you want, Lucia?" Dave said.

"I want to know what caused these riots, and I know you were involved in this," Lucia said, not wasting time going right for what she wanted to know.

"What makes you so sure that I had anything to do with it?" Dave asked.

"Earlier, as I drove by, I saw you, helping out Black, the leader of the Skull Cross Gang, along with Black's right-hand man. I saw it with my own eyes," Lucia said.

"Okay, you got me, but you have to know one thing, this riot was just to keep our fellow officers occupied BECAUSE I was helping out Black, along with the rest of the members who got arrested," Dave said. "I just didn't think that you were that smart to figure that something was up."

Lucia shook her head, realizing that this whole thing was a setup from the get-go.

"We got enough information out of him, but I must know where the other Skull Cross lieutenants are," Lucia said.

"I'll tell you," Dean said, as the other three looked towards him. "Sorry about earlier, there was not enough to explain everything."

"Wait, what do you know?" Haggar said. "You must know a lot about these guys."

"I was just another fighter in the underground fighting circuit," Dean said. "However, the Skull Cross Gang tried to recruit me in the past, and I refused to join them. I'm no saint, as I took part in illegal fighting, but I did it because my family needed money and it was the only way to get a lot of money to help support them."

"Where is your family now?" Lucia said.

Dean hesitated to answer, but he had to tell them right then and there.

"When I refused their offer, they had tortured me badly, but that was not the bad part," Dean said, and then turned his head and faced the ground. "Stray, Black's right-hand man, had plans of his own. He and some other members went after my family. One night, I got home, and noticed that my home was ransacked, and there was blood everywhere in the house. I saw my mother, my father, my brother and my sister, lying dead. I then found a note left by Stray, saying that this was what I get for refusing their offer to join them. Now I'm going to hunt every last one of them down and make them pay for what they did."

Lucia put her hand to the bottom of her mouth, realizing that this guy has a personal vendetta against the Skull Cross Gang. Haggar and Guy shook their heads, not knowing what to think about all of this.

"We'll help you take them down, Dean," Haggar said.

"I am a believer in destroying evil," Guy said.

"Thank you, and I know where to find some other ones, we have no time to lose," Dean said. "I know a place not too far from where we can start."

The four then go off to continue their battle.


	3. Back Alley Beat-Down

The quartet walked around and saw that there were several MCPD cars parked with the lights flashing. It was clear that the riot was just a smoke-screen, as it was to keep the cops busy while the Skull Cross Gang breaks someone out of police custody.

Haggar, Guy, and Lucia were all informed about Dean's motivations for taking down the Skull Cross Gang, who had quite a bone to pick with them, as his family was slaughtered by them. This was far from the first time that Metro City had gone through the ravages of a street gang trying to rule it with an iron fist. But what was the motive for the Skull Cross Gang? That was the real question.

The four vigilantes walked down a walkway into an alleyway near a broken chain-link fence adjacent to a building looked to be built out of marble. It had a Middle-Eastern vibe to it. Right in front of them were some Skull Cross members just hanging out.

Haggar looked towards Lucia. "Hey, maybe you should go check on your fellow officers to see if they need help."

"I just called for some backup," Lucia said. "Besides, many other fellow officers have either been injured or worse, killed, and I want to take down these guys as much as all of you do."

Guy said, "It was only the three of us when we took down the Mad Gear Gang about five years ago. I think we got this."

"Silence, all of you!" Dean said. "I know a lot about these guys. I will lead for all of you and with these scumbags, we need all the help we can get. Follow me."

Haggar, Guy, and Lucia had no choice but to follow Dean's lead. A couple of thugs were just hanging around. One was about to light a cigarette and then looked up.

"Oh shit, hey man, we got company!"

The other thug looked up. In that moment, he went forth to approach them, as did the one who was about to smoke. Haggar wasted little time and grabbed the two as he got close to them and then bashed their heads into each other.

More thugs came out from behind and were ready to fight, but Guy quickly reacted and ran and did a spin kick right to one of them. While Dean went ahead and punched the criminal a few times until he shocked one of them. While Lucia jumped up and delivered a flying spin kick and lit yet another thug on fire in the process.

Guy looked over at that, but after having gone through various fighters who throw fireballs or even a human beast somehow knowing how to shock people, nothing surprises him anymore.

Haggar grabbed another and delivered an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and even for a guy his size and shape, he jumped up and delivered a flying clotheline to another thug.

One thug tried to attack Lucia from behind, but she thought ahead as she quickly spun around and delivered an elbow to the man's gut. Though she was probably the weakest of the four, she was quick and used that to her advantage. Right after that, she quickly jumped up and did a few spinning kicks but it took the criminal upward as she spun and kicked him until he dropped to the ground. She jumped right to her feet after that.

"Is that all of them," she asked.

"It looks like it," Haggar said.

"Let's keep going," Dean said. "I think I know where the next Skull Cross lieutenant is."

Dean led the way down the street. It wasn't long until they came to what appeared to be a dead-end as they walked right by a hot dog/sandwich shop. They reached an alleyway with garbage cans and bags lined up against the wall.

But that wasn't all as they found some more gang members hanging around there. It was mainly guys like G, Johnny, and Billy. Like before, they came in with their stances up and initiated attacks. Haggar quickly grabbed G's arm after he tried to throw a punch and launched him towards Johnny. Lucia delivered a few quick kicks right to Billy and sent him flying towards the garbage bags.

Guy looked around and noticed that the three lowly thugs lied there in pain. Something was amiss, however. If there was one thing that his mentor Zeku, as well as Master Genryusai had taught him, is that a ninja senses things all around him, or her if the ninja was female. He felt that something was behind him.

He quickly turned around and saw a man with a tan skin-tone wearing a white tank-top and some shorts, and also gloves with claws on them. The man was Dirk, one of the Skull Cross members. Going toe-to-toe would be big mistake as he would easily cut him.

He swung the claw right towards him. Guy bent backwards and quickly got his body up and jumped back to get out of range.

Guy spun around and delivered a hard elbow right to the claw-wielding thug and then jumped up and delivered another elbow to his face, sending him falling backwards. He sat up and then took a breather and rubbed his head a bit.

In that moment, the quartet went down the alleyway and it wasn't long until they reached another path that was close to apartment buildings. More lowly thugs tried to go after the vigilantes, but were met with attacks that sent them flying to the ground. They walked towards the end.

"This is definitely the place," Dean said.

"What is it?" Lucia said.

"I know the guy who runs that establishment over there," Dean said pointing towards what appeared to be a bar or restaurant, but the neon light said "club."

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" A voice said calling attention to the four vigilantes. They turned their attentions to what appeared to be physically-imposing obese men. Though they were rather overweight, it looked like they also packed some muscle in their system, like maybe they were also former football players or sumo wrestlers. One of them had a beard on his face and a bandana covering his head like a pirate. The other was clean-shaven and had a Mohawk. They were wearing a vest with a muscle shirt and shorts, and oddly enough, they were barefoot.

"Hey, Arby," said the man with the Mohawk. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Hell yeah, Fat Jack," said the man with the bandana. "Let's waste these assholes."

The two overweight men looked to have been standing guard in front of a club that was located at the end of the street. It was called Club Sims. It was daytime, so the club wasn't open for business, but that didn't mean that any Skull Cross members weren't hanging out in there at that point.

Arby approached Haggar. "Well, if it isn't our mayor trying to clean up the streets again. Yeah, I heard how you cleaned up the streets from the Mad Gear Gang a long time ago, but those guys ain't shit compared to us. Why don't you and your little team just piss off?"

"I don't answer to scum like you," Haggar said. "If you don't let us through, then we got a serious problem."

Dean then cut in. "We're here to see Callman."

"He ain't here," Fat Jack said.

"I didn't ask if he was here," Dean said. "I said we're here to see him, because I know he's in there."

After Dean said that, some more Skull Cross Gang members started to walk from the opening on the opposite end of the street. Guy and Lucia signaled to Haggar and Dean that they'll take care of them, while Dean and Haggar deal with the behemoths.

Fat Jack tried to run towards Dean to tackle him, but was met with a few punches and BZZZT! Fat Jack shook from the final touch, as Dean shocked him with an attack.

Jack fell to the ground, but quickly sat up and glared at Dean. That shock was not fatal, but it made him get up and charge right at him with a tackle. There were only two things to try to do in this situation. One, be smart and dodge the attack. Or two, endure the attack. There was a third option and that was to try to go on the defensive.

But Dean played it smart and dodged the attack but out of Fat Jack's field of vision, a blue shoe came right to his face, as Lucia jumped in and delivered an Air Twister kick as he knocked Fat Jack back a bit, as well as another thug from behind her.

"Thank you," Dean said. Lucia smiled at him.

Dean used this opportunity to grab Fat Jack. Surprisingly, he started to glow with an electrical charge and threw the fat man to the ground and quickly picked him and jumped up high and threw him to the ground once more, knocking the wind of him.

Meanwhile, Haggar had his hands full with Arby. While Haggar was heavy with all the muscle he was packing, Arby was surprisingly quick for an obese man. Some of that weight was muscle. He even knocked the mayor down after he tackled him.

But Mike quickly got up and charged at the fat man and delivered a hard tackle of his own. Arby stood near the door to the club and the moment Haggar tackled him, the door broke down and they both ended up inside. Haggar was right on top and saw that Arby was knocked out a bit. He got up and Dean, Guy, and Lucia followed him inside.

It was clear that the place was not open for business at this hour, but some other Skull Cross members were seen hanging out in there.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" A thug said. "Don't you know this place belongs to the Skull Cross Gang? It's off-limits!"

"Um, that's not the idea I had," Guy said. "Besides, isn't this place open to the public at night?"

"Whatever, man, we just want to mess you up," another thugs said.

"Not so fast!" Just then, what sounded like a British accent came from the other end of the club. "I'll take care of this problem."

All four of the vigilantes looked at the other end of the club and there was a tall, muscular bald man wearing a button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves and bow-tie. He even had fingerless gloves on. Surprisingly, he had a few lowly thugs there, dressed like G, as well as a couple of female thugs by his side. The two female thugs had a similar style with a revealing outfit showing their cleavage and midriff, as well as having some knife gloves.

"Well well," the man said. "Nice to see that you are reconsidering joining us, Dean."

"Shut up, Callman," Dean said. "We're here to teach you all a lesson."

"You know, I'm sorry what happened to your family, I really am. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Callman said. "But you decide to crash and trash my business. For that, I shall make you all pay."

"Hold it right there." Haggar intervened. "If you want to take on somebody, it will be me."

"Oh, so the mayor wants to take me on? Bring it on!" Callman said. "I'll have you know. I'm one of hell of a brawler, chap!"

The two female thugs approach Lucia and Guy. May, the blonde one in the purple outfit approached Lucia, while Mary, the black-haired one in the orange outfit approached Guy.

"Come on, this doesn't have to be painful," May said.

"At least we'll try to be done with you quickly," Mary said as she slashed one of her blades towards Guy, who quickly dodged the attack.

May tried to do the same thing as she quickly tried to slash and stab Lucia in her bare midriff, but she dodged the attack, but not by much. She noticed that the blade was barely an inch way from her stomach.

Lucia raised her foot to deliver a kick, until she saw May jump up and straddled her legs on both sides of her neck in front of her. She flipped backwards and delivered a Frankensteiner attack.

May sat right over Lucia and raised her arm like she was about to punch her, and with the blade on her hand, one could only guess what she would do.

But Lucia saw May ascend right to her feet and get thrown towards a table, breaking it in the process. She saw Dean standing right before as he extended his hand to help her get up.

Guy said to Mary. "I usually try not to hit ladies, unless there is a situation involved, like this."

Mary tried with all of her might to slash Guy, whether it was in his midsection or on his neck, anyway that could be fatal, but he blocked and dodged every attack.

"I have dealt with some of the greatest female fighters all across the world," Guy said. "Some of them were very honorable and didn't have to resort to using knives like this!"

Mary tried to do a Frankensteiner on Guy. She quickly flipped backwards to execute the attack, only to see that she was a bit higher off the ground and that Guy didn't land on his back, as he powerbombed her through a couple of wooden chairs.

"Man, that had to have hurt," Lucia said as Guy turned his attention towards her.

Meanwhile, Dean only had his hands full with any of the lowly underlings. It was a walk in the park for him.

Haggar tried to deliver a couple of chops, punches, and axe hammers to Callman, but he dodged every attack and delivered a couple of body blows and a left hook to Mike's face. With Callman being taller, he had quite a reach and showed that he probably had a boxing background.

Haggar got up and saw that Callman charged right towards him to tackle him, but he thought ahead and grabbed him and delivered a vertical suplex right through a table and a chair.

But that wasn't the end right there. Though Callman preferred to be honorable, he found a stick that was broken off one of the chairs. He looked to Haggar.

"You ruined my restaurant!" He said with so much rage in his voice. He seemed like he was going to puncture Haggar right in his bare chest with that stick. However, Haggar grabbed Callman and flipped him upside and jumped up to deliver a spinning piledriver right to the ground. Callman lifted his head up, but then dropped again.

Lucia came in and grabbed one of his arms by the wrist and felt a pulse. "He's alive."

"Well, we need to find out where more of these guys are," Haggar said.

"I can tell you, but I think there are more out there than we think," Dean said.

Guy said, "This guy didn't seem all that evil, but rather just upset that we trashed his business."

It was only about a minute until Callman had regained consciousness.

"You're still here?" he said. "What do you all want?"

"We want to know where to find the leader of the Skull Cross Gang," Haggar said.

"Also, where…is…Stray?" Dean said.

"You know Stray is one crazy bloke, right?" Callman said. "You'll be lucky to find him if he doesn't finish the job that he did on your family."

A scowl grew on Dean's face and a charge started to emit from his hand, but then Lucia intervened and told him to calm down.

"Relax, Dean, you will avenge your family soon," Haggar said and then turned towards Callman. "Where else can we find others?"

Callman had little choice in this matter. He wasn't sure if Stray or Black would come and kill him for selling them out, but then again, who knows if the other lieutenants would even try on him? Or even Dave for that matter, even though Lucia bested him in their battle.

"I can tell you to go to the junkyard, Chinatown, and also the docks," Callman said. "You'll find more people there. They might tell you where to find Stray and Black. Me, I'm just a restaurant owner who gets a lot more money from Black. I may work for the Skull Cross Gang, but I am not like the others." He turned towards Dean. "Like I said before, your family did not deserve what happened to them."

Dean nodded his head. "Okay, we'll take your word for it. We'll find a bus or a train to get to where we all need to go. Thank you."

Dean then led the way towards another door to the outside of Club Sims. It was adjacent to a park with benches and trees. They all walked down in silence. The nearest bus stop was not too far from there, as it was close to a car dealership. The question on everyone's minds was where should they go or at least where they should go first. Who knows what kind of answers they will find. Only time will tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I must note that if you played this level in the game, there were two routes to go through. You could go inside the club and fight Callman in there or go into the back alley near a park and fight him there. Personally, I found the part of going inside to be a better setting for the fight because in reality, I don't see why he would be waiting for you outside. Second time mentioning Streets of Rage, but at least in SOR2, when you fight Barbon, you go into the restaurant/club first and then do the back alley brawl with him.


	4. Splitting Up

Dean led the other three people in his party down a few blocks. There was little that came out of his mouth in that moment. He was so full of determination to take down the Skull Cross Gang, but the question on everyone's minds was how personal it could be.

While he had stated that they had slaughtered his family, it appeared that he knew more about them than the others. While Lucia was a detective in the Special Crimes Unit, she was an honest upstanding police officer who had dealt with various crimes. Even when she was a rookie in blue, she had dealt with the Mad Gear Gang herself. But it seemed like the Skull Cross Gang were something else.

Haggar was no stranger to the crime element in Metro City. For some reason, he had to take a trip away from office to help out another friend overseas to save that friend's sister and father, whom were connected to Guy.

Guy wished that he could have helped out Haggar, as well as his then-future-sister-in-law (now current) Maki, as well as an old friend named Carlos in the fight against the Mad Gears in Eurasia. However, he had his hands full with training, as well as dealing with a mad dictator in his fight against evil.

But the question was how does Dean know so much about these guys? Even though the Skull Cross Gang had gained power over Metro City, their presence was still not as well-known as how the Mad Gear Gang's presence was before. They were also affiliated with Mad Gear before their fall.

But what separated Mad Gear and Skull Cross was that Mad Gear had ruled the city with their racketeering and illegal activity under the rule of Belger, whose financial backing was quite an influence. Skull Cross, on the other hand, is ruling the city with their penchant for civil disturbance and unrest. They didn't even bother to come to Mayor Haggar to put him in their pocket.

They walked a few blocks from Club Sims. The one bus stop that had a route to one of the places they needed to go was right in front of a car dealership. Dean led the way. No one was really the leader of this troop, but with Dean having some ostensive knowledge of this gang, he had to lead the way for them.

"Hey, Dean," Haggar said. "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Dean said.

"You could at least tell us what you're planning to do," Guy said.

Haggar noted, "You know so much about them that you even addressed the last guy by his name. Did they hound you to join them?"

"I will not share any more of this," Dean said.

"Come on, Dean," Lucia said. "We're trying to help you, but we still don't know how you know so much about these guys."

Dean turned around to face them, "You sure ask a lot of questions."

Lucia responded, "We only asked a few. Look, all of us want to help, but can you at least tell us how everything went down when they tried to recruit you?"

Guy then spoke, "Also, how are you able to shock people like that?"

Dean looked at the other three but then raised his head a tad and looked closer and through his eyes was the sight of some unruly riff-raff headed their way.

Guy then looked behind him and saw some more gang members approaching them.

"Now is not the time," Dean said.

"We got company!" Guy yelled.

At that very moment, the quartet was ambushed. It was as if someone sent them to off them. Sure, the Skull Cross Gang may have power across the city, but the way they're approaching them, it's as if they mean business.

The moment someone was about to whack Guy in the back with a hammer, he quickly turned around and fed the guy an elbow to the gut and then quickly spun around and jumped to elbow the hammer-wielding thug in the head with another elbow.

Lucia quickly leaped and delivered a spinning kick to the face of another thug. Right when she landed, someone delivered a cheap shot to her back as she fell forward. It wasn't over for that thug, as he quickly drew a knife.

"Looks like Dave didn't get the job done earlier, as he failed in killing a pig," the knife-wielding thug said. "Looks like I'm taking this pig to the slaughterhouse."

He grabbed her in a stranglehold with the knife in that hand, while he used his other hand and rubbed his left over her bare stomach and to her breasts and cupped one of them.

"It would be a real shame if a pig like you has to get slaughtered like this."

But in that moment, she delivered a hard mule kick to his nuts. She turned around and got behind him and delivered a hard German Suplex to the pavement.

" _You_ are the pig, asshole!" she yelled right to him.

A thug tried to rush Haggar, but his beast-like physique was not about to taken down that easily. The moment he turned around, Mike picked up the thug over his head and then tossed him right towards a window into the dealership. The alarm started blaring in that moment.

Lucia looked up and wondered if any of her fellow officers would respond to this. It would at least get the thugs off their backs.

A few thugs once again tried to gang up on Haggar, but he delivered his spinning lariat to knock them all down. Dean quickly took down a thug and delivered a few punches to him while he was on the ground.

From a distance, a few suspicious looking figures looked on. It happened to be May and some of her cohorts, along with Rick and Dirk, as well as Arby and Fat Jack.

"You think we should join in?" Rick said.

"Nah," May said. "I think more will show up. Besides, Stray wanted them to take care of the problem. He promised he would pay the man who kills that blonde guy."

"What about the rest?" Dirk said.

Arby said, "I think whoever kills the mayor will get paid a high sum."

"Shit, why don't we join in?" G said who walked up at that moment. "I could really use some of that money."

Guy found some nunchucks on ground and started going to town on another thug who tried to attack him. The guy wouldn't budge though, as he picked up the hammer that another thug used earlier. Being the martial artist that he is, Guy just dodged every attack that the man attempted on him and swooped out of his way. The thug turned around and saw that Guy spun around a delivered a hard spin kick right towards the man's face and sent the man flying towards a glass window and bumped right into a car, which caused the car alarm to go off, even with the shop's alarm still blaring at that moment.

From a few blocks away, Haggar noticed a transit bus pulling up.

"Hey, you guys," he said. "This bus goes by a junkyard like that bouncer said."

"Weird that he would just tell us like that," Dean said. "Why would he sell them out like that?"

"Wait," Guy said. "He said that we can find information on where to find who you're looking for."

"For all we know, we could be falling into a trap," Lucia said.

"Okay," Haggar said. "But he also said about other places. We all could try scoping the junkyard first and then Chinatown. The junkyard is close to the Westside, which is where Chinatown and Japantown is."

"But there is also the docks," Lucia said. "Wait, I just thought of something. How about you and Guy go to the Westside, while Dean and I can go check out the docks? There's got to be something big going down there."

"Excuse me?" Dean said.

"I'm just saying we can split up for now. You and I can go check out that area. I have a hunch that something is coming in. I heard that the Skull Cross Gang runs the docks as well. They might have a shipment coming in. Could be weapons, could be drugs, could be counterfeiting. Who knows?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Haggar said. "We'll meet up in Chinatown later."

"Okay, sounds good," Lucia said. "I'll keep an eye on Dean. He'll watch my back as well." She turned towards him. "Right?"

"Yes, I will, Lucia," Dean said. "Let's get going."

Dean and Lucia took off to get to the docks. They had to find a way and found a subway nearby.

As the bus got closer, Haggar looked at the two blonde vigilantes as they walked away. Guy looked at them as well but then looked towards Haggar, as he had a suspicious look on his face.

"What's wrong, Mike?" Guy said.

"I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like Lucia is kind of sweet on that guy Dean."

"What makes you so sure?" Guy said.

"I don't know, but she often helped him and tried to keep him calm, but like I said, maybe it's just me."

Guy turned around and glanced as the two blonde-haired vigilantes walked off. What was noticeable was that Lucia often looked in Dean's direction. It seemed that Haggar had a point. The way she wanted to help him or would be quick to assist him, it almost seemed as if maybe she felt something for the man. Sure, it was possible that she may have been attracted to him, but it seemed that there was more to it than that.

It wasn't long until the bus had arrived and pulled up to the stop. Haggar and Guy stood by the bus stop and got right when it stopped.

Right when they got on, Haggar took a close look at the driver. The man driving was dressed in some gear that didn't appear to be a part of the Uptown Metro City transit system, or even any other districts of the city. No, the driver was dressed in a leather vest and a muscle shirt with black jeans. The hat he wore looked to be stolen from the driver of that route.

Guy walked in to find a seat to sit in. Right when he was about to sit down, he noticed a few passengers on the bus looked suspicious to him. The passengers looked like they could be Skull Cross Gang members. They all mugged towards the two men.

With such cramped room, he grabbed one of them and approached the back exit door and right when it opened, he threw the man out. But it didn't stop there.

Another gang member tried to attack Guy from behind, but was quickly grabbed by Haggar. He carried the man towards the front of the bus and yelled at the driver to open the door and then threw the man out of the bus with such force.

Oddly enough, any other Skull Cross Gang members got up and went to the back door and got out as fast as they could.

Just then, the bus then started moving as Guy and Haggar fell to their left. They grabbed onto a bar on top of a seat and quickly seated themselves.

The two gang members who got out looked on at the bus rolling off and then saw the other gang members lying in pain across the street.

"Damn, looks like our mayor has been busy," one of the criminals said. "We were supposed to pick up our guys and we would go hide."

"I don't think they'll make it," the other guy said. "Besides, Caine will take care of them."

"Weird how they're going over there to hide out. Caine don't like people coming around his place."

"He ain't so bad if you just don't bother him."

"That's true."

On the bus, the driver sped through traffic and intersections. Some police cars had the roads blocked off because of some of the rioting that occurred earlier that day. It was in case if any other riots were to happen in that section of the city.

"That driver is certainly in a hurry," Guy said.

"Something tells me that his bus was supposed to pick up those hooligans that we took care of just now," Haggar said. "We're heading to their hideout."

The two looked at each other in silence.

"There must be somebody there who might know something," Haggar said.

It wasn't long until they had stopped. But it wasn't at another stop to pick up any passengers, whether they were civilians or fellow gang members. Haggar looked up and saw towers of cars stacked on top of each other. Guy noticed the same thing, as well as noticed the driver getting up and quickly getting out of the car.

It was obvious that they were in a junkyard. But why? Does the Skull Cross Gang run this particular junkyard?

"Hey, Caine! We got company!"

Caine? Haggar thought. He must be the name of another Skull Cross lieutenant.

Haggar and Guy got up and walked towards the front door of the bus and got off. Though they figured that this bus was stolen before, it appeared that it wasn't just to pick up any gang members to take them to a hideout. It almost seemed like this junkyard was connected to a chop shop. With another bus parked about 100 feet away, it seemed that the bus they rode was about to get the same treatment.

On top of that same bus, a tall and muscular man with a gray uniform that had ripped sleeves and a gray baseball hat on came walking out. He also had a horseshoe mustache and a pair of protective goggles on, as well as slammed a rather large wrench into the palm of his gloved left hand. He was Caine, who appeared to be another member of the Skull Cross Gang. He probably ran this place, but it seemed void of any others.

"Well, what do we have here?" the man said. "Who dare comes into my inner sanctum?"

Caine looked down. "Well, is that our mayor down there? You know, I don't like people coming in here, especially when I don't invite them. So why don't you two just get out? Now!"

"Wait," Haggar said. "Do you know anything about what your boss is planning?"

"Boss? What boss? I own this place," Caine said. "I tried to ask you nicely to get out. You leave me no choice but to get you out myself."

Guy then leaned in and whispered into Haggar's ear. "Hey, let me handle this guy. I'll talk some sense into him."

Haggar said, "You sure? That guy looks bigger than you. How about if I do this?"

"I have a plan," Guy said. "Besides, I have a feeling that he can't really fight. So I think I got this."

Haggar nodded and said "go" to him. Guy ran and jumped onto a car that was right beside the bus and then climbed onto the roof of the bus.

Guy looked Caine dead in the eye with dead silence.

"I told you to get out and let me do thing," Caine said. "But now I must get you out myself."

Caine started swinging the wrench multiple times. Each time he swung, Guy dodged every attack and backed up. Caine missed each attack. Guy backed up until he noticed that he was on the edge of the roof. Caine walked across and once he saw the number 21 on the center of the roof, it was clear he was halfway.

He spun his wrench around like how a martial artist would swing a bo staff or even a spear. "Okay, I tried to be nice, but you left me no choice."

Caine charged right towards Guy brandishing his large wrench, but Guy quickly got out of his way as Caine fell right off. Before he could hit the ground, Haggar caught the mechanic and then pushed him against the wall.

Haggar looked around and noticed a familiar face walking around. The person's eyes shifted right to Haggar but quickly ran off. Haggar then let go of Caine, who then picked up his wrench and raised it as if he was going to hit him. But right in his field of vision, even through his dark goggles, he saw a man in red jump right in front of him and then his right arm was grabbed, as right when he was about to hit Haggar, the man in red blocked his attack. The man in red turned out to be Guy.

Guy grabbed the wrench from Caine's hand and then threw it to the ground.

"No, we need to talk," Guy said. "While I'm a firm believer in destroying evil, I don't think you're that evil. You're just misunderstood and you don't like people and you have your own form of evil."

"What are you talking about?" Caine said.

Meanwhile, Haggar caught up to the driver and then tackled him to the ground.

"Please, don't hurt me!" the driver said.

"I won't if you tell me what's going on here," Haggar said. "Do you work for the Skull Cross Gang?"

"Okay, yes, we do," the driver said. "But we had nothing to do with the rioting or anything like that. I just took the bus to help bring any of our fellow gang members to hide, and also to deliver this bus to Caine. He usually doesn't like having people around while he handles his own shit. He only likes taking apart cars and appliances and stuff. That's all he does."

"Do you know anything about someone murdering a family?" Haggar said.

"I only heard some shit, but I mainly handle matters for Caine," the driver said. "I'm the closest he has to a friend, even though he doesn't really like people. As for the murders, I try not to get involved in any of that heavy shit."

"Okay, then maybe I'll go talk to him."

It wasn't long until Haggar met up with Guy, who held the wrench right to Caine's neck to keep him still.

"So your friend tells me that you only like stealing cars and appliances for your own pleasure," Haggar said. "So you don't really have much involvement with the rest of the gang I hear."

Caine replied. "I'm not the guy you should talk to. Yes, I handle my own stuff. I rarely go to any of the meetings. I may be a part of the Skull Cross Gang, but I am not involved in all the stuff that everyone is involved in. I only get my money for some of the stuff that Black and the rest of the gang do, but I don't really keep up with what the rest of them do."

"Okay, I get that," Haggar said. "So who should we talk to?"

"You want answers?" Caine said. "Go to Chinatown or go the docks in the Bay Area. You'll find some answers there."

Guy then backed the wrench away, along with backing himself away from Caine.

"Just want to know one thing," Haggar said. "How is it that you are a part of a gang if you don't like to be around people?"

"Money," Caine said. "I may get some money from some of the guys who use my place as a hideout, as long as they stay out of my way. I got nothing else to say. Get out of here."

Haggar and Guy turned around and walked off.

"He said Chinatown," Guy said. "Isn't that in the Westside of the city?"

"Yes, it is," Haggar said. "But he didn't say where to search. We may have to ask around."

Guy then saw the driver from before and then tapped on Haggar's shoulder.

"Hey you!"

The driver turned around. "What now?"

"My friend and I need a favor. As your mayor, if you don't want any jail time for stealing cars and stuff, I am going to tell you to drive us to Chinatown now. Do I make myself clear?"

The driver sighed and then nodded his head. He approached the bus, along with the mayor and the martial artist. He was about to escort them to Chinatown in Metro City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm going to explain a few things.
> 
> In the game, there are different routes to go. I had Haggar and Guy complete the rest of the level by heading to the junkyard and fighting Caine. It will then lead to them going to Chinatown. Dean and Lucia will go and handle matters at the docks stage, which I will also get to.
> 
> Okay, so there was no fight scene on the bus like how the game has them fighting on the bus. As someone who has ridden on the bus many times (And does it quite often, too), there is not a lot of room, if any, on a bus for a fight sequence to occur. Maybe a one-on-one fight scene, but even it's pretty cramped in it. The subway sequence in the first game seems a lot more plausible as there is more room in a subway train car.
> 
> I know that the fight scene with Caine was underwhelming, but really, the character himself, aside from having a lot of health, is pretty underwhelming as well. He doesn't really have a lot of attacks, which only consist of swinging his wrench. It wasn't really a fight scene, either, as it was mainly Guy dodging his attacks and using his wits to take him down, rather than his hands and feet.
> 
> Haggar and Guy will go to Chinatown. In my mind, I think it's in the same area as the Westside stage from the first game. Remember, it's still Metro City, so some locations might still be there. The next chapter or two will be with Dean and Lucia.


	5. Flashback

After Haggar and Guy took off, Dean kept walking with Lucia not far behind him. In fact, Dean walked as if he was alone, even though he wasn't. Even if they were walking together, it's common for someone to be ahead and the other to be behind, but in this case, Dean, in his mind, was all alone, even though Lucia offered to accompany him.

But why did she want to help him? That was the real question.

"Hey, Dean, wait up!" Dean suddenly broke from the trance he was in as Lucia called for his attention. He turned around and noticed the female detective walking fast to try to catch up to him.

"Look, Lucia, detective, whatever," Dean said. "I know you want to help me, but this is my battle. I could have done this all on my own. I don't know what the mayor and Guy are up to, but this is my fight and mine alone. I don't need your help."

Lucia responded, "Dean, I want to take down the Skull Cross Gang as much as you do, but all you have told us so far is that someone had killed your family and that motivated you to bring them down. I just want to know more, that's all."

"I'm not here to make friends," he said. "I'm here to avenge my family's murder. I know a lot about these guys and I will make sure that they all pay for what they did."

"I know that," she answered. "But if we're going to work together, can you at least fill me in on what happened?"

Dean sighed. "Listen, Lucia, you seem like a nice woman and all, but what happened to my family is something I don't want to talk about."

"I know that, but you should also know that I am an officer of the law. I really need to know what happened. I can help bring those other men we dealt with to justice."

"With all due respect, Lucia," Dean paused before he said her name. "But it would take more than just putting them behind bars to bring them to justice."

"As a cop, I need to know something," Lucia said.

"Why?" Dean said.

"Because when we all met up earlier," Lucia said. "I saw you looking at a photo. I want to see that picture. As an officer of the law, please let me look at your picture."

Dean squint his eyes a tad and shook his head. "Why should I?"

"Because I think I may know something about your family's murder," she said.

Dean's eyes bulged when he heard her say that.

"You don't know shit!" Dean yelled. "You really can't know. The cops never found out who did it, but I know who was behind it!"

"Please, just let me see and I'll give it right back," Lucia said. "I need you to tell me what happened. Tell me your side of story and I will tell you mine. Okay? You have to trust me."

Dean sighed once again and then reached for his wallet. He went to his pictures and then got it out and handed it to her. She looked at the photo and some of the people seemed familiar to her. Not that she had met them before, but more that she had seen pictures of some of the murder victims.

Suddenly, she breathed and shook a tad, as well as one of her eyes started to moisten. Dean looked closely at her and said, "Lucia, are you okay?"

Just then, she gave the picture right back to him. She saw a bench close by and went to sit down. Dean followed her and sat right by her. While Dean was overrun with emotion over this whole situation, it was surprising to see Lucia was upset about it. Though she felt his pain after he shared some details earlier, this seemed to have hit home for her.

Lucia looked down and wiped some of the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. She turned towards Dean. "Please, tell me what happened. I am here to help you, and then I will tell you my side of the story."

Dean nodded his head. "Okay, you really want to know? Here's what happened…"

* * *

**A few weeks before.**

One night, Dean went to the Surf Bar in the Westside of Metro City to take part in some fights. Despite Haggar dealing with the people at that bar years prior, that business never shut down. However, the underground fighting area had started operating again a year prior.

Dean fought an opponent in the cage that was set up in the patio like how it was set before. The odds were in Dean's favor, as he had been winning a lot of fights lately in different circuits, including a fight arena that was in a basement adjacent to a subway station.

He had won a few fights that night, as he wanted to get a good amount of money to support his family. He was thinking that maybe it was time for him and the rest of his family to move out of Metro City or at least move to better parts of it.

That same night, Dean was about to leave the Surf Bar to head home. But then suddenly…

"Hey, Dean," a man said. Dean looked over and saw an African-American man with sunglasses and a beret, as well as a Caucasian man with a pompadour haircut. Then came two other men with blonde hair and wore suspenders with no shirts.

"What do you guys want?" Dean said. "I have nothing to say. I already told you that I am not interested in joining you."

"Really?" Johnny, the man with the beret, said. "That's funny, because Stray wants to have a word with you about that."

Arby and Fat Jack came out from the sides and then knocked him down. Billy and Ray picked him up and G put a bag over his head, as he would regain consciousness very soon.

The Skull Cross Gang members took Dean to do what appeared to be a lair. He didn't recognize the place, but from the looks of things, it appeared to be a garage of some sort. He was hanging onto something, like ropes of above him. He had no shirt on, with his muscular upper body baring but he still had pants on.

From a distance, he had heard some voices.

"How in the hell would Caine even let you use his place to do this? You know he don't like nobody coming around here."

"Relax, I paid him some money. I told him we needed to use it for something important. He'll be out of our way. That guy doesn't like to be around people anyway."

Dean looked around. He noticed G and Johnny standing in the garage with him. G looked up and then went outside.

"Hey, you guys, that guy is awake!" G yelled.

At that point, a lot of the underlings of the Skull Cross Gang had walked in, everyone from Billy and Ray, to Dirk and Rick. Even May and some of her cohorts had walked in, as well as Joe, who was even wearing his gas mask at that point. The only ones who weren't seen were Arby and Fat Jack, and also Andore and Andore Jr.

But the last guy who walked in was a man in a long green coat and purple pants, as well as long purple hair and had some shades on. Dean looked right at this guy, who had a sinister smile on face.

"Well, look who it is," the man said. "You refused our offer a few times to join us. And now you're here with us. Isn't that funny?"

The man, along with a few others started laughing.

Dean looked right at him. "What the hell do you want from me, Stray? I told you I don't want to join you guys."

"What kind of choice do you have? If anything, this is an initiation," Stray said.

"Initiation? I never agreed to this bullshit!" Dean said.

"You can only make so much money by fighting in the circuit," Stray said. "You run with us, you can make more money."

"You guys are scum," Dean said. "I would never join you. The Mad Gear Gang even tried to get me to join them when they were around."

"Mad Gear only wished that they could be like us," Stray said. "We may have been connected with them, but they're gone and they couldn't do half the shit we can do."

Stray raised a fist, which had spiky brass knuckles on it. "Like this!" And then he swung his right hand right to Dean's bare chest. "And this!" He then swung his left fist, which also had spiky brass knuckles wrapped around it.

He punched Dean's torso a few times, ranging from his chest to his abdomen. With the spiky brass knuckles a factor here, blood emitted a bit from Dean's torso.

"What's up now?" Stray said. "Doesn't feel too good, does it? This is just the beginning."

"What do want from me?" Dean said.

"I want to show you what we do to people who mess with us or turn us down."

Just then, a car had pulled into the garage. The thug known as Driver had parked it into the garage. With the garage doors being open, there was no real worry about gas fumes. However, Stray had some plans of his own.

"Hey, I want you to pop the hood and start up the car again," Stray said.

Driver said, "Hold up, what?"

"Just do it!" Stray growled right at him.

Stray saw some jumper cables lying around. The other thugs just stood there and watched as Stray clipped the jumpers onto the car battery and then clipped the other ends onto Dean's chest, his nipples at that.

"Time to give you a jump, Dean," Stray said and then laughed evilly. He signaled to Driver to hit the gas, causing the electrical current to enter Dean's body, as the other thugs just stood there and watched Dean shake from the shock treatment he's been given.

Stray looked at Dean as he still shook, but he continued to breath. He looked right to Driver and signaled him to do it again. Driver hit the gas pedal, causing yet another electrical charge to go right into Dean's body. Stray convinced Driver to give Dean a third jump.

After the third shock, Dean shook and continued to breathe. Stray went ahead and punched Dean in the stomach.

"How are you not dead, asshole?" Stray said.

Rick and Dirk, the claw-wielding thugs approached Stray and asked if they should just finish him off.

"No, I have an even better idea," Stray said with an evil grin on his face. "I know a better way for him to see things our way."

May and her cohorts cut the rope to have Dean drop to the floor. Everyone left the room soon after.

* * *

"…So later on, I managed to make it home," Dean said. "I found the bodies of my mother, my father, and my younger brother and sister. There was blood everywhere. My mother was barely breathing when I found her. She told some really bad people came to the house and ransacked it and then brutally tortured and maimed everyone. Right after that, she died. Also, you now know how I could shock people the way I do. I'm lucky to be alive from all that torture, but at least I have that ability now."

Lucia put her left hand to her mouth. Suddenly, a tear started to drop from her left eye.

"Listen, don't feel bad for me," Dean said. "This is my fight."

"I can't help it," Lucia said. "But there is also something you should know."

"What's that?"

Lucia took a deep breath. "Okay, here's what happened…"

* * *

**A few weeks before.**

Sometime after the bodies were taken away, Lucia and her partner Sean Carter went to investigate the crime. Lucia and her partner were detectives of the Special Crimes Unit, which specializes in murder, as well as sexual assault and other related crimes, as well as organized crime.

The Crime Scene Unit was taking samples for evidence and stuff. Dave went to check out the crime, as well as another Metro City police officer, Edi. E.

"Oh, Lucia, didn't expect to see you here," Dave said.

"Well, it's my job, isn't it?" Lucia said. "Carter and I are here to investigate this brutal murder."

Edi. E asked, "Do you know if anybody survived this?"

"Good question," Carter said. "We were told that four bodies were found last night. A neighbor said that another family member was seen entering the house but left not long after that. Nobody knows where he is."

"What do we got?" Dave said.

Lucia replied, "From what I can tell, an older man and older woman. Two young victims, young man and young woman, possibly boy and girl. They seemed young, like maybe older teens or maybe at least 18 or 19, maybe younger. I don't know. But I didn't see another family member like we were told. We came here the moment someone had called."

Edi. E said, "This seems like the work of a real professional. It's like he planned how he would slaughter this family. Do you think that this is the work of a gang attack?"

"I don't know," Carter said. "Then again, home invasion attacks can be initiated by gangs. Who knows?"

"Excuse me a sec, I got to make a call," Dave said.

Lucia looked around. There were bloodstains everywhere and someone had outlined where the bodies were found. She looked around and noticed what appeared to be a family portrait. She noticed that the descriptions of the bodies matched the bodies, but then she saw another family member. He was older than the other two children of the family, like maybe he was the eldest child. This picture appeared to be from a while ago. She then saw what appeared to be a more recent picture. The two young victims appeared older; almost as how old they were at the time of their deaths.

She continued to check out the area, until she heard what sounded like Dave on the phone. She hid behind a wall.

"Listen, did you actually do this?" Dave said. "We are searching the house. This definitely sounds like your kind of work."

Huh? Lucia thought.

"Don't play dumb with me, Stray! I know what you do and how you do it," Dave said. "Now we're dealing with blood on our hands."

"Blood on our hands?" What does he mean? She thought.

"Look, when we have to get Black out of jail, I will help, but you need to cover your own mess next time," Dave said. "I can't bail you every time. I'll talk to you later."

Lucia then quickly moved away so that Dave wouldn't see her. She then continued to investigate. But what was really on her mind was about the man in the photo. Where could he have gone? She felt the need to ask the neighbor about this. She picked up the photo and then walked towards the neighbor who was being questioned.

"Excuse me, miss, I have to ask," Lucia said. She pointed to a particular person in the photo. "Is this the main that you saw enter the house and then left not long after?"

The neighbor nodded her head.

"Do you think he was responsible for their deaths?" Carter said.

"What? No!" The neighbor said. "He loved his family. He wouldn't do that."

"Did you see anybody else enter the house at any point?" Lucia said.

"I got home sometime after my neighbor went inside," the neighbor said. "He seemed like he was hurt. He was moving in a weird way. He couldn't have done this."

Lucia somehow believed the woman. When she overheard Dave talking on the phone, her suspicions rose a bit. She suspected that Dave was a bit corrupt, but how corrupt was what she wondered now. As for the missing person, there had to be more than met the eye.

* * *

"So yes, I did investigate your home, but what was on my mind was what happened to your family and who was responsible," Lucia said. "After what you told me, everything started to make sense."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dean said.

"Because I didn't put two and two together until now," Lucia said. "I want to help you bring down the Skull Cross Gang. Mayor Haggar wants to bring them down just as much as I do, and just as much as you do."

Lucia then gave Dean a hug after having this talk. "We're in this together."

Dean just shook her hand from it and then hugged her back. "Just know one thing, Lucia, Stray's mine. He will pay for what he did to me and what he did to my family."

Lucia nodded. Then out of the blue, an MCPD squad car had pulled up. The window had rolled down.

"Lucia, is that you?"

Lucia turned around and saw the driver. It turned out to be Detective Carter.

"Sean, what a surprise," Lucia said.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would join the fight against the Skull Cross Gang," Sean said. He also couldn't help but look at how she was dressed.

"I am helping this man out, as well as Mayor Haggar and a friend of his," Lucia said. "But I still uphold the law in this situation. This man and I are going to check out the docks to see what the Skull Cross Gang has there."

"I see," Sean said. "Anyway, you want a ride? I can give both of you a ride over there."

"Are you sure about this?" Lucia said. "I mean I think that our captain will find out that I took the law into my own hands here."

"I won't say a thing to him," Sean said. "Besides, a lot of the precincts have their hands full because of the riot. Everything has gone to shit. And yes, I am sure about giving you two a ride right now. I'm serious."

Lucia then looked towards Dean, who nodded his head in the process.

"Okay, let's get going." She said.

Lucia entered the front passenger seat, while Dean had gone into the backseat. It didn't matter if that was the area where a suspect would sit. This cop was willing to do his partner and Dean a favor. They may have to return it someday, especially with everything that was going on in Metro City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this went a little longer than I thought. I will try to put in some interludes because I am trying to do a little more characterization this time. When looking at my Final Fight 1 story, I know I had made it a novelization of the arcade classic. But really, we knew very little about some of the characters.
> 
> The next couple of chapters will be Lucia and Dean going to the docks, while Haggar and Guy go to Chinatown. Expect a few cameos in the Chinatown chapter. I even had Edi. E make a cameo. Fun fact: I found out recently in the game that you could go to Chinatown in the second to last stage. Capcom really did a good job with the multiple routes that you can take in Final Fight 3.
> 
> Oh, and if you're wondering, I do kind of ship Lucia and Dean, but I am not doing a forced love story in this story. I'm having more like Lucia feels something for Dean, who may share the same feelings, but is too focused on getting his revenge. Maybe one day I'll do a separate story on those two.
> 
> Also, the character of Sean Carter is a reference to Jay-Z, except his real first name is Shawn.
> 
> One more thing, so yes, I had it be that Lucia had investigated the crime scene and suspected that Dave was corrupt. But if you want an explanation about Lucia suspecting about Dean and not knowing who he was at the beginning, think of it this way: He just walked into Haggar's office and she turned her attention towards him. She wouldn't just recognize him on the spot from just the picture.


	6. Smuggler's Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be centered on Dean and Lucia. This will cover Round 4A, which has them go to the docks and shipyard.

The sky was dusk, as evening was falling upon Metro City. The MCPD cruiser had arrived over in a section of the bay area of Metro City. Dean sat in the back-seat, where suspects would be seated. Lucia rode shotgun with her partner, Sean Carter.

They crossed the East Hook Bridge. Lucia looked below and noticed the boatyard had several people down there. On any other day, it would be anybody doing their job. But Lucia had a hunch that something was going down. After all, she and Dean were told about something going down at the docks. But what was it?

Another factor was that a few boats were seen from a distance coming in. Several people from below appeared to be waiting for some others to come. Maybe the boats that were sailing towards the docks were arriving for a meeting. The boats were in front of a bigger boat that was pulling up.

"Sean, stop the car right now," Lucia said.

"I'm taking you to the docks," Carter said. "I can't leave you right here."

For some strange reason, traffic wasn't all that bad at that very moment. With the riot having occurred earlier that same day, it would be wise for people in Metro City to stay indoors. After all, it wasn't just rioting that occurred. A lot of the rioting started because of some bombings that occurred in the city. So it's unlikely that people would want to be out and about on that very day.

If anything, the police car was the only vehicle on that bridge at that very moment.

"There's something fishy going on down there," Lucia said. "If they see a police car, then we're dead."

"How do you figure?" Carter said.

"It seems like everywhere we go, the Skull Cross Gang has a hand in something or they're not too far behind," Lucia said.

Detective Carter had stopped the car as Lucia opened the door to step out. She got closer to the deck of the bridge. She noticed the walkway underneath where people can walk under the bridge. She leaned her head out from the railing to see what may have been going on at the docks. From what she saw, some of the people who stood by the edges of the dock watched as the boat was being docked.

 _What is going on down there?_ She thought. This didn't feel like a normal day at the docks to her. She then went back to the car and went inside.

"Listen, we might have to go in quietly," Lucia said. "I think something's going on down there."

"What's that?" Sean said.

"I think there might be some kind of deal or a smuggling operation," Lucia said. "Could be drugs, could be arms. I have a bad feeling of what's going on here."

Sean's bottom lip slowly went down and exposed his teeth a tad and let out a minor hiss. "Are you sure about this? You two don't have any arms on you."

"We'll have to rely on our wits to get in there," Lucia said. "Besides, I have an idea for all of us, even you."

"What is that?" Sean said.

"I think that if we can find what's going on there, we can try calling in the others to show what may have been going on today," Lucia said. "I think the Skull Cross Gang is trying to prove a point that they are not to be messed with."

"Lucia," Sean said. "With all due respect, but as your partner, I don't agree with your method here."

"What are you talking about?" she said.

"I know you have your method of laying down the law," Sean said. "I know that when shit gets heavy whenever we have dealt with some thugs, you can get a little violent at times. But this whole thing, you're pretty much putting the law into your own hands."

Without hesitation, Lucia said, "I know I have my ways in enforcing the law, but just because I don't have a warrant or anything doesn't mean I am doing something wrong here. Besides, I have my badge on me to show that I am enforcing the law."

"You are dispensing vigilante justice here," Sean said. "How do we know that this guy you're working isn't a criminal?"

From behind, a voice said, "Hey, I'm right here." Sean turned around and saw Dean sitting there.

"Oops, sorry," Sean said.

"Excuse me for a bit," Lucia said and then got out of the car to open the door to the back seat where Dean was sitting. She said to Dean, "Listen, we'll be done in a bit. Just wait here."

Dean sighed. "Okay, I'll wait a bit. But just remember I have my own score to settle."

"I know," Lucia said and then went back in the car.

"Okay, Sean, I'm going to tell you right now and you need to listen to me," Lucia said. "Remember a couple of weeks ago when we investigated the murder of that one family."

After a couple of minutes, Sean's eyes were slightly wide and his mouth was open a tad. It was not hard to see why he had that facial expression on his face.

"See what I mean now?" Lucia said. "Listen, I'm going to need your help on this. I am not only helping that man out there in bringing down the Skull Cross Gang, but Mayor Haggar is also involved. Also, I found out that Dave is working with the Skull Cross Gang. I even had a feeling that he had been accepting bribes from them, but it seemed that there was more to it. Even when there had been arrests of other gang members, he often had something to do with it. I wouldn't doubt if some of the Skull Cross guys planted evidence or something."

She paused for a bit. "I want you to find any other officers to try to help us on this."

"I'll find others in our precinct and others in other precincts," Sean said. "Some of our fellow officers were killed during the riots. But I will see what I can do."

"Okay, sounds good," Lucia said as she patted her partner on his shoulder and then stepped out of the car.

He looked on as she approached Dean as he was scoping the dock area. Was Lucia making the right choice here? Sean knew about what the mayor had done about four years prior with the Mad Gear Gang. He even knew about the mayor going overseas to help out a couple of friends to deal with another chapter of the Mad Gear Gang. He even remembered a corruption charge that Lucia faced, when a fellow officer from their precinct was actually corrupt.

Sean then drove away, while Lucia and Dean walked alongside the bridge to find the stairs to get to the walkway on the bridge.

As they got lower, Lucia had said, "Did you see anything down there?"

"I am sure that there something going on down there," Dean said. "I have a feeling that the Skull Cross Gang had brought in some stuff, what is it?"

"We'll have to find out," Lucia said. She then saw a ladder to get down to ground level that would be adjacent to the docks. "I also have a plan for both of us."

"What's that?" Dean said.

"I'll tell you when we get down there," Lucia said.

The duo climbed downward on the ladder that was at the end of the walkway. It was quite a drop, but they kept their grip and balance until they reached the base of the bridge. They saw how shallow the water was right there, so they crossed right onto the ground so that they could get right to the docks.

Lucia and Dean looked right towards that particular area of the docks. Lucia then noticed the smaller boats in close to other docks.

"Okay, I'll tell you my idea," Lucia said. "How about I go search the boat? I think there's something in there."

"Wait, I don't know about that," Dean said. "I think I saw someone familiar on that boat."

Even from a distance, Dean could recognize a high-ranking member of the Skull Cross Gang. Something told him that he knew where he could find Stray.

"I'm the cop here," Lucia said. "I might have some evidence here that could bring them down."

"My motivation is to get information on where to find my family's killer," Dean said. "We can both go in there. You can search the boat for the cargo hold while I go deal with the boat's captain. He might know where I can find Stray."

Both Lucia and Dean had their own motives for doing this. Lucia wanted to repay Haggar's debt for being cleared of the corruption charge, as well as to try to figure out what the Skull Cross Gang plans to do. While Dean just wanted to avenge his family's murder. He knew that doing that won't bring them back, but he had been dealing with a lot of pain, especially being that he knows who was behind it.

Throughout the time spent together, Lucia saw that Dean just wanted justice for what was taken from him. It was no secret that that was his main goal. She felt his pain, especially after investigating the murder scene a few weeks prior. It seemed that Lucia was the only person Dean had shared any detail in regards to the massacre. He only mentioned to Haggar and Guy about the murder, but that was it.

They walked forth towards the dock areas. They looked around. With the sun setting, there was still enough light to get a grasp as to what was going on.

From a distance, on that same boat that was docked, a tall muscular boat captain with a tattoo of an anchor on right shoulder stood before a few men. He was wearing blue jeans and a blue and white striped tank-top and a captain hat and also had a beard. The captain was Drake, another one of the Skull Cross lieutenants.

"Alright, men, listen up," Drake said. "Black and Stray should be here soon so that he can tell us what we should do with our shipment. I had to bring this ship to shore. Black should be here soon."

"Can't we just unload one of the boxes and use one of the weapons to guard the place?" One thug said. "I mean we're out in the open. Some guy will snoop in on our shit."

Another thug said, "We already got our protection. Some of May's girls and Andore, as well as Arby and Fat Jack had come out here to make sure no one sticks their noses where they don't belong, know what I'm saying? Besides, Rick and Dirk had recruited a few others who know to handle claws. If anyone comes on, they'll be dealt with."

If only that were true, as Drake looked over from the lower deck of the ship and got out a spyglass and looked through it. He saw a familiar face and a blonde woman with him walking on the wooden dock.

"Shit, he's here," Drake said.

"Who, Captain?" one of the thugs said.

"That loser Dean and some broad came here to crash our deal," Drake said. "Get everyone together. I know that guy Dean wants answers."

At that very moment, as Dean and Lucia walked on the wooden dock, they came across a sign that said "KEEP OUT" on it that was next to a light post. Lucia looked right in front of her and saw a couple of women in silver suits with blades on their gloves. One had pink hair, the other had more of a reddish shade. They looked like they were dressed like that girl May from before. Then a couple of obese followed them, who were Arby and Fat Jack.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" said April, the girl with the pink hair.

"You two don't belong here," said July, the girl with the red hair. "If you two don't want trouble, I'd suggest you two leave." She then rubbed her blades together.

"Out of our way, girls," said Fat Jack, as he and Arby approached the duo.

Lucia turned towards Dean and whispered, "I'll handle the girls. You handle those two."

Dean nodded. Just then, Arby and Fat Jack charged right towards Dean and delivered a double tackle right at him, which sent him right from his feet and then he fell right onto the wooden panel of the dock.

April and July swung their blades right towards Lucia, who backed up at every swing, jumping backwards and moving her head in opposite directions to avoid being slashed. Right after she dodged the last attack, April had spun around and delivered a hard crescent kick right to Lucia's face.

Right from above, on the bridge, Carter looked down right at the dock area and had a look of confusion on his face. He tried to take a closer look, but it wasn't good enough. So he got out a pair of binoculars and looked right down there and saw that Lucia and Dean were being jumped, but they were also fighting back.

The young African-American detective grabbed the police radio in the cruiser and turned it on. He had to find a frequency to garner attention.

"Attention, all units in the area, this is Detective Sean Carter of the Metro City Police Department. I have a disturbance going on at the East Hook docks. I need some assistance right now!"

On the dock, Dean laid a few punches into Fat Jack, and right when he was about to lay the last punch, his right started to charge and then laid his right hand hard into Fat Jack's gut, causing quite a shock that caused him to drop and shake.

Lucia had dealt with April and July after she jumped up and delivered a hard spin kick. Another one of May's girls tried to come at her. She slashed her blades and missed almost every time. "Almost" being the keyword, as Lucia felt something in her abdomen. She noticed a minor cut as a little bit of blood came out of a wound that was close to her belly button, just right above the waistband of her shorts. The cut did not look severe as it only looked like a flesh wound.

But that didn't stop the female Skull Cross soldier to continue.

"You won't be lucky the next time!" she said as she swung her blade right towards Lucia's neck and chest. Lucia immediately dodged the attack and spun around and in that reaction, she jumped up and delivered a spin kick, then another, as she sent the female gang member flying in the air and right at the final kick, she sent her flying towards the water where the female soldier landed.

Another one of May's girl's tried to prepare to do a sneak attack on Dean. Right when he was about to turn around, the girl was about to stab him.

"Dean!" Lucia yelled. The other assassin turned right towards her, as Lucia had jumped in the air and delivered a flying kick with her right foot emitting flames causing the female assassin light on fire. At that moment's notice, the female assassin had fallen into the water to get the flame right off of her.

With a lot of the threats having been knocked out, it was time to get on the boat to see what was going on. Both Dean and Lucia had leaped right onto the deck of the boat and noticed that the door to the cargo hold was open. They also noticed a flight of stairs. Which was the best way to go was anybody's guess.

Right from above them on the roof of the cargo hold, which was close to the boat's bridge, stood a few Skull Cross members who likely rode with Drake on this.

"Hey, Dean," said one of the thugs from the top. "Come up here. We'll have a little fun."

Without any words, Dean punched the palm of his left hand as his fists emitted an electrical charge. He went right towards the stairs.

Lucia, on the other hand, went into the cargo hold, as the answers to her questions will now be fulfilled.

Right when Dean reached the top, a few of sailors/pirates with sunglasses on and beige vests all approached him and were ready to fight at that moment. One sailor grabbed Dean from behind and held his arms back in a double-arm chicken wing lock. The two other sailors went to town on socking him right in the chest, the gut, and also the face. But it didn't take long for him to break away and immediately grabbed the thug who held him back and then jumped in the air and then launched him right towards the water.

A couple of other thugs went right onto the upper deck and tried to jump Dean some more. Some of them even managed to get him on the ground. In the process, a few of them tried to stomp and kick him while he was down.

Suddenly, Dean felt a minor charge in his system and in that moment, he got up and delivered a spinning chop/elbow hybrid move which had an electric surge in his arm to each of the thugs which sent them flying back.

But he wasn't done yet, as he grabbed one of the thugs on the floor and said, "Where is Drake?"

The thug said, "He is down on the front on the lower deck. He wants to take you out."

"I'll be happy to oblige," Dean said and then shoved him right back to the floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the cargo hold, Lucia saw Billy, Johnny, and Joe, a short Skull Cross thug with long red hair, shades, a black outfit, and for some reason, a muzzle right on his mouth. Drake was seen right through the door.

"Hey, get that bitch, right now!" Drake said.

Without any warning, Dean stormed right through the doorway of the cargo hold and then grabbed Billy and threw him right towards one of the crates that was close to the wall. The crate then broke. However, Johnny grabbed the hook on the chain that was hanging in the hold and was ready to stab Dean right in the back.

Luckily, Lucia intervened and then grabbed him by the waist and delivered a German Suplex right to him. Both Johnny and Billy got up and rubbed their heads from the pain that they suffered and decided to leave, as the looks on their faces said "Screw this, I'm out of here!"

But only one or two men were left, as Joe looked right at Lucia and put up a fighting stance. Dean then looked right outside towards the front of the boat, as Drake picked up a large anchor.

"This guy's mine," Lucia said. "You go handle the captain." Dean nodded.

Joe stood there with his arms spread out and his moved around. Lucia tried to lay a kick right onto him but he quickly moved right out of her way. She tried to lay a few more kicks right to him but he was so quick that he rolled right under her and then went behind her and jumped right onto her back and grabbed her by the shoulders and delivered a couple of head-butts right to the back of her head.

With Joe still on her back and now noticing that he was getting ready to grip her neck, she quickly ran backwards towards a wall. It didn't matter which one or what she hit. She quickly ran and jumped backwards and hit Joe against something, causing him to head the back of his head and to let go of her.

She sat up and took a deep breath and then looked over at Joe, who was laid out but still breathing. But what caught her attention was something that she had suspected initially. She got up and looked closely at the crates, which were marked "Sims Inc." and then saw what was inside one of them: a stash of firearms, ranging from pistols, shotguns, to submachine guns and assault rifles. The rest of the crates had the same marking of Sims Inc. There were enough arms to support a small army. Was the Skull Cross Gang going to use those arms for themselves? Or were they going to make an arms deal?

In that moment, she had to do something. She quickly ran out of the cargo hold and ran up the stairs to the upper deck and went into the bridge. She opened the door and ran right towards the radio. She needed to make sure the MCPD, the Coast Guard, anybody was nearby.

"Hello, can anybody read me?" She said. "This is Detective Lucia Morgan of the MCPD. I am at the East Hook Docks. I just came across a stash of illegal firearms that were smuggled into the city."

Right when she was done saying, a voice was heard saying, "I read you loud and clear, Detective Morgan. What's your status? Where are you?"

"I am on the bridge of the boat," Lucia said. "I…" She then looked out the window and saw someone running down one of the docks to her left.

 _What the hell?_ She thought. A pair of binoculars was set right close to the radio and the wheel of the bridge. She picked them up and looked right through them. She saw what looked like an African-American cop running down the docks and then turned onto one on them and then tried to find a boat to escape on or at least alert some authorities. Then she noticed a tractor going towards his direction with other people pointing towards the direction of the cop. The cop turned out to be Carter. With the sky getting darker, the lights had come in and she was able to pinpoint who the person was that was running.

She picked up the radio and said, "I'll have to get back to you. Just send in the Coast Guard or MCPD." She dropped the radio and then ran out of the bridge.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dean stood there face to face with Drake, who held the anchor by the chain right over his shoulder. They stood in a distance in front of each other with Uptown Metro City in the distance on the end of the bay.

"Well, well, Dean," Drake said. "I guess we have our ways of getting to you. You decided to join us, huh?"

"I never will," Dean said. "I just want to know where Stray is."

"You know that I'm not going to tell you," Drake said. "Even if you do find him, it will be too late because he will already be done with you. Besides, you don't find Stray, he finds you, and when he does, it's all over."

Dean put up his stance and an electrical flash went around his fists. Drake pulled the anchor from over his shoulder and then spun it around knocking Dean down in the process. Dean then got back up and then Drake threw the anchor right towards him, but this time, Dean jumped out of the way, except when he got up, Drake immediately dashed right towards him and delivered a hard tackle and went against the metal wall of the boat.

Dean was down, but Drake wasn't done. He picked him up, as Dean was only some inches shorter than him, and grabbed him by the neck and delivered a few hard punches to Dean's face. Dean dropped when Drake let go and then Drake jumped up and was about to deliver a hard senton attack, but Dean rolled and Drake missed.

Dean then got up, as did Drake, who then picked up the anchor again. There was no time to hesitate, as Dean ran and then delivered a slide attack which then tripped Drake. But the sailor then got up and looked right at Dean with a glare. Dean had a few bruises on his face from the anchor attack, as well as the punches he had received.

Drake walked towards Dean, as he towered over him by a little bit. He delivered a hard right hook towards Dean's face and delivered a hard left-handed body blow to Dean's gut. Drake tried to punch Dean again, but was blocked as Dean had grabbed Drake's right hand and then threw him over his shoulder.

But Drake didn't want to give up. Dean's arms started to charge again. Drake looked at him and wondered if he was even human, but in reality, Dean got those powers after he had been tortured. Somehow those shocks enhanced his abilities.

Drake tried to tackle Dean again, but Dean grabbed him as he started to flash and then took him down to the floor of the ship. But he wasn't done, as he continued to hold the captain and then jumped up as Dean was flashing and then threw him to the floor. Drake tried to sit up and but couldn't as he lied on the floor.

It wasn't over yet, as Dean knelt right before him. "I'm going to ask you one last time, where is Stray?"

"Like I said before," Drake said, as he tried to catch his breath. "It won't do you any good. Stray will find you and you better be ready. Besides, I didn't have shit to do with your family being killed. I'm mostly doing stuff for Black."

"Oh, I know, and Black is next, too," Dean said and then walked away.

* * *

Meanwhile, Carter continued to run from the Skull Cross Gang members. He tried to reach for support, but for some odd reason, he wanted to investigate the area by himself. The moment one gang member made him out, Carter was screwed. He tried to radio in from his scanner that he had, but there was no reception close to the water. He hoped that someone may have heard his report on the police car radio from before.

He tried to use his gun, but he knew that because he was outnumbered that if he fired at someone, it would draw attention and for all he knew, they were probably heavily-armed.

But that wasn't the worst part. As he tried to find a boat that may have had a radio in it or at least find a hiding spot to find some reception for his own radio so that he can reach any reinforcements. A Skull Cross Gang soldier had gone after him on a tractor. He ran and ran, but some other soldiers came out of the woodwork and pointed to the man manning the bulldozer in the direction he was running.

For some odd reason, he ran down another dock to search for a boat, except this time, he wanted to make his getaway. But it wasn't about to happen, he turned around and saw the tractor treading right onto the dock.

"Oh shit," he said to himself. The only option he had was to try jumping in the water. He was an average swimmer at best, but anything could have been better than being run down or run off a dock.

However, Lucia raced off the boat the moment she was going on. The moment she saw the bulldozer get onto the dock to either run over her partner or run him off the dock, she had to think fast.

It was in that moment that she jumped right on the back of the machine. The machine was not fast, so she got off the boat at the right time. She climbed right on the back of the tractor and as it was slowly coming up on Carter, she crawled right towards to the driver.

She leaned right towards the driver. "Stop the tractor right now!"

"Yeah right," the driver said. "I ain't doin' shit!"

Right when the thug said that, Lucia grabbed him by the head and then slammed his head right against the windshield, which broke it a bit and then shoved him right off the seat. He screamed as he dropped into the water. As the tractor moved closer to the detective, he kept backing up but then noticed how close to the edge was. Lucia got on the seat and tried to look for the brake. She tried to hit the brake, but it wouldn't stop. She saw that it was getting closer and closer, as Carter was so close to the edge that he was about to fall at any moment.

But then it hit her. Lucia saw an emergency and quickly hit that and boom! The tractor went to a complete stop. Carter looked behind him and saw that he was so close to falling into the water. Lucia sighed in relief.

"Thank you, Lucia!" Carter said.

"No problem, Sean!" She said and then took another deep breath.

Just minutes later, Lucia and Carter had walked right towards the base of the docks and saw that several boats and cop cars were pulling up. It turned out that the police and coast guard had responded to Lucia's report after all.

Dean then approached Lucia and said, "Let's go. We need to meet up with Guy and Haggar."

"Right," Lucia said and then turned towards Carter. "Hey, is it okay if we use the squad car? We need to find more stuff."

Earlier, Carter would have told have told her no because of what she was involved in. But the fact that she is working with the mayor on this, as well as saved his life, he realized that he owed her.

"Here, take these," Carter said and handed her the keys to the squad car. "Oh, and what did you find?"

At quick notice, she said turned her head and said, "We found some illegal arms. I'll explain the rest later. If you want to know more, we'll be in Chinatown."

Carter then nodded his head as several cops were searching the ship and some had taken some Skull Cross members out in handcuffs, including Drake.

The detective realized that he should not have doubted his partner. He felt that he owed her a lot more than he thought and it wasn't just about the fact that she saved his life.

* * *

Right on the bridge up above, a limousine was seen parked, as a man dressed in a military uniform with a red beret and an eye-patch stood there with a pair of binoculars. Right next to him was a man in a long green overcoat and long purple hair and shades on his eyes. The military man was Black, the leader of the Skull Cross Gang, whereas the man in purple and green was Stray, Black's right-hand man.

"Well, Stray, looks like our whole plan went to shit," Black said. "I see that one guy you failed to kill that one night. He probably had something to do with this."

"Wait, what? Let me see," Stray forcefully grabbed the binoculars and saw Dean walking with Lucia towards one of the police cars. Lucia had flashed her badge to be cleared to use the car.

"Well, I guess I need to take care of that little problem," Stray said. "I mean it didn't seem like Dave could have handled them. Callman didn't say shit, even though I could have gotten it out of him my way. You can't rely on Caine for anything. He never wants much to do with us, unless we give him some stolen cars or some shit."

"It turns out our plan to run Metro City went to hell," Black said. "Those weapons were going to be our plan to show the city what we're made of. Hell, Belger only wished he could be like me. All he had was money. I have my own way of power. Besides, even though Drake failed us, we still have our resources for power."

Stray nodded his head.

"But until we get our own situation sorted," Black said with so much venom and then turned towards his second-in-command with an ice cold stare out of his one eye. "You need to handle our problem. Whether it's taking out that one guy who wants revenge, the mayor, that lady cop, or even that one ninja, just take them all out."

Stray nodded again and then an evil smile grew on his face. "Yeah, the mayor and that ninja think they could take us all on just because they defeated Mad Gear before? Mad Gear ain't got shit on us."

An evil smile grew on Black's face at that moment. "Just take care of them, okay? Or else I'll take care of you."

Stray nodded once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I am going to level with you on some stuff here. So there was no fight sequence on the bridge (I mean a bridge to cross) like in the game, because I had to conduct some research about bridges and docks. So I used the bridge as an obstacle for Dean and Lucia to get off of to head to the docks. Plus, I kept on looking at videos for the long-plays and kept on wondering how they go from a bridge to the dock. I know I shouldn't question logic in video games, especially beat-'em-up games, but still. At least in my Final Fight 1 story, I had it be that Cody, Haggar, and Guy went through a hallway to get to the fight arena that was close to the subway. You get what I mean.
> 
> I also had debated the bit with the tractor. Initially, I had thought of having it be that Dean will fight Drake, while Lucia would scope the area and then get caught in that situation. However, being that I wanted to include my OC as somewhat of a backup, supporting character if you will, I had it be him instead and had Lucia make the save. Plus, it made sense for the different paths with Dean going to the top of the boat while Lucia went into the cargo hold and found the arms in the crates. He'll appear again in another chapter.
> 
> It also should be noted that the tractor bit was a bonus round in the game. I wanted to implement that bit into the story.
> 
> I also felt like I needed to add a bit with the main villains at the end.
> 
> Also, Smuggler's Blues was a reference to the Miami Vice episode of the same name. It was also a song from the late Glenn Frey.
> 
> The next chapter will be Guy and Haggar in Chinatown, which was an alternate route in the game. It will be up soon.


	7. Judgment Night in Chinatown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be centered on Haggar and Guy. This is on Round 4B.

It was nighttime in the Westside of Metro City, where Asian districts were common, particularly Chinatown, where Haggar and Guy were told that there had been some other Skull Cross members. Metro City was ridden with crime, but what was the criminal element in Chinatown? They already found a crooked cop who may have had something to do with the riot, as well as came across a tough club owner who happened to run with the Skull Cross Gang. Then again, it was crazy to see a loner-type be a member, but have little to do with their activity.

The question on the minds of both men was why they were told to come here. Did the members sell out their other fellow gang members and lieutenants? Or were they beaten so badly that they had no choice but to tell the vigilantes?

It didn't matter. Haggar and Guy were on a mission. Night had fallen and Driver had dropped off the two vigilantes at a bus stop nearby. Why at a bus stop was anybody's guess. Maybe this guy worked for a bus company before and when he left that life, he probably joined the Skull Cross Gang.

Guy was the first to walk out of the bus and looked ahead of him and saw how much bright and colorful that part of Chinatown was. It was only approximately 7 or 8 at night, so it wasn't that late that the nightlife could be booming, except it wasn't, as the attack and riot from earlier may have caused some people to want to stay in.

"Hold on, Guy, I'll be right out," Haggar said as he stood right in the doorway of the bus and then turned his attention directly towards Driver. "Listen to me, my friend and I appreciate what you've done for us. I promise you that I will not turn you in, but only in exchange for helping us. If you decide to leave this life behind us, I will not let the MCPD know and have you thrown in jail. Do I make myself clear? I probably won't even have Caine get put in jail, either."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor," Driver said. "Good luck."

Haggar nodded and then exited the bus to walk with Guy.

"So what are we looking for?" Guy said. "That bald guy or that dirty guy didn't tell us where to go. For all we know, they probably sent us on a wild goose chase."

Haggar said, "There has to be someone around here who may a thing or two about this place. When Cody and I checked out this area four years ago, I was suspicious about the Surf Bar having something big go down. Cody thought that it was just a wild night there, but then we found out it was fight night over there."

"If only that guy Dean was with us," Guy said. "He seems to know a lot about these guys. But it turns out that he and Lucia are out scoping another area. Wait, didn't you say that they would meet with us?"

"They will, but they're probably caught up right now," Haggar said. "They'll meet with us soon. They said they'll be here."

As they continued to look around the area, the streets of Chinatown appeared to be empty. Or so they thought.

"Hey." Haggar and Guy quickly turned their attentions in the direction of where that word came from. Right from down the corridors near a building with red walls and pillars and a dragon symbol on the end of it, out came a clean-shaven Caucasian man wearing a T-shirt under some type of suspenders. Another was a Caucasian man with a beard and a leather vest and blue jeans. The other two were African-American men with shades on. One of them was bald and was wearing an orange shirt under some dark overalls. The other had a crew-cut and had a dark green button-down shirt on with ripped off sleeves and wore dark green pants.

"Wait," Haggar said. These men appeared familiar to the duo. "Bred, Jake, Dug, and Simons? Is that you?"

The quartet of men was of former members of the Mad Gear Gang. Then right out from behind, a British voice had said, "Mayor Haggar, how nice to see you and Guy again."

The duo turned around and saw another couple of familiar faces. One had spiky blonde hair and was wearing a familiar yellow and blue jacket, except it had sleeves. The same could be said about the other man, who had a red Mohawk, except the rest of his head looked like it was buzzed, not completely shaved and was even wearing shades, even at night. Like the other man, he had a familiar orange and green jacket but had sleeves on it. The British accent came from the man in yellow.

"J, Two-P," Guy said. "I remember you guys."

Without hesitation, Haggar and Guy put up their dukes as if they were ready to fight.

"Hold up," Bred said. "We don't want any trouble. We're not looking for a fight."

"What are you talking about?" Guy said. "You guys were in Mad Gear."

"So we think you might be part of Skull Cross," Haggar said.

Jake stepped forward. "We don't run with those psychos."

"I beg a pardon?" Haggar said.

J, who has an American accent, said, "You said you guys are looking for someone around here. I think we all might know where to find what you're looking for."

Haggar looked at the two guys and the other four guys who were close by with a look of skepticism on his face. Guy had some skepticism on his face as well.

"Wait, so you guys don't work for the Skull Cross Gang?" Haggar said. "How do we know you guys aren't lying to us?"

Dug responded, "After the fall of Mad Gear, we just did our own thing. But some guys tried to ask us if we wanted in."

Simons added, "But then we saw what kinds of things that they do. One of their high-ranking members is a freakin' psycho, man. Shit, one of their soldiers seems like he could be a cannibal. That short dude with the long red hair gave me the creeps."

"Also…" a female voice said nearby, as Haggar and Guy looked right down the corridor that was close to a Chinese food truck that was right by a building that was across the way. Out came two females who were wearing short shorts, leather hats, and leather jackets over some rather revealing tops. One had long purple hair. The other had long orange hair. It turned out that Poison and Roxy, formerly of Mad Gear had been close by as well.

"Some of those guys seem to be thirsty for blood," Roxy said. "I mean, sure, we used to be pretty violent at times, but not like those guys."

Poison added, "I mean we didn't go so far as to bomb some buildings in the city."

"Poison and Roxy," Guy said. "Nice to see you two ladies again." He said with mild sarcasm.

"Bred is serious," Roxy said. "We're not looking for trouble. We're trying to help you guys."

"What are you two ladies doing out here?" Haggar said.

"Well," Poison said. "We're trying to find Hugo and Junior to see if they want to find other ventures. I tried talking to him about me being his manager and Roxy maybe being Junior's manager for the wrestling circuit."

"But in the meantime," Roxy said. "We also need some money, so we are also…"

"Don't say it," Haggar said. "I have a good idea what you're about to say, but you two girls should not do that."

Poison then added, "However, we found out that they are part of the Skull Cross and it's going to be hard for us to get to them."

"Well, this is quite a reunion," Haggar said. "I'm surprised that I don't see the rest of you guys."

Bred said, "Hey, just because we're not in a gang or anything like that doesn't mean we can't be friends or anything like that. I got my brothers right here, ain't that right?"

Jake, Dug, and Simons all nodded and padded Bred on the shoulder.

"Besides," J said. "Everyone is off doing their own thing. El Gado and Holly Wood are with Rolento trying to put together their own little army."

Two P added, "Axl and Slash, Bill Bull, Graham Oriber, and Wong Who, we see them sometimes, but not a lot. Damnd went off to the Caribbean. Sodom had tried to get everyone back together. Abigail is too busy running his garage but will be a bouncer if needed. Edi E is still on the force. He even tried to get us to be his snitches for him. I said hell no."

"But you guys are trying to snitch for us," Haggar said.

"That's not the same thing," Two P said as he pushed his shades down a bit to reveal his eyes. "They also tried to recruit us, because we worked with their main guy Black, as well as his second-in-command Stray, but I see the way they handle shit. Stray is a nutjob. As part of an initiation process, Black had some of his guys jump some random guy who was trying to join, as well as shoot up some places. I know we've done some terrible shit, but I'm not proud of it, and neither are the rest of us. We want to help you bring them down."

Bred walked right up to the mayor and the Bushin ninja. "There's a restaurant very close by that I think that the Skull Cross Gang might run. I think one of their lieutenants is the owner. It's actually on the corner right there." He point right to the building that was right next to the Chinese food truck.

"You'll find your answers there," Bred said.

As the former Mad Gear members stood in front of Haggar and Guy, he saw a short thug with a German soldier helmet and a white tank-top with suspenders and long green pants and long black boots. The man was Fritz, a Skull Cross soldier, and he had similarly-dressed men with him.

Fritz and the other two men raised their arms and looked like they had something in their hands.

"Oh shit, everyone, break!" Bred yelled. Everyone turned around and saw Fritz and his fellow soldiers throw those objects. Everyone, from Haggar and Guy to the former Mad Gear soldiers made a break for it.

However, Guy had other ideas as right when Fritz was about to throw the grenade, he quickly dashed right towards him and delivered a quick and strong spinning kick towards him and it sent Fritz dropping to the ground. In a quick moment, Guy went back to his feet and then spun around and delivered a hard elbow and another spin kick to the other two guys with Fritz.

But that wasn't just the bad part. Haggar looked at the explosive that Fritz had thrown and quickly dove and right when it was about to hit the ground, he landed on his bare chest on the pavement with open hands and caught the grenade. But that wasn't all. Haggar threw the grenade to what appeared to be an empty area, with no people around or anything and watched as it hit the ground and then boom!

Haggar then looked at Fritz, who lied on the ground with a bloody nose and breathed a bit. He picked him up and then pushed him right close to a light-post with a serpent-style symbolism close to the light.

"Okay, asshole, I want to know what's going on here," Haggar said.

["I'm not saying shit,"] Fritz said in German.

"Speak English!" Haggar said.

Fritz took a deep breath, and said in a German accent, "Me and my men come here on orders from Black and Stray. We've been told to take out anybody on the streets that are messing up our business."

"Well, you better tell Marshal Black that we are coming for him," Haggar said and then pushed Fritz back into the pavement.

The former Mad Gear members stood there and looked on.

"Man," Two P said. "I remember thinking that the mayor was pretty rough when we dealt with him before, but he's gotten worse."

"When the city has gone through problems with gangs, as well as going around the world to deal with other Mad Gear guys, can you blame him?" Bred said.

Haggar and Guy went up the stairs that was adjacent to the Chinese food truck. They walked up and found a door to enter, which had some Chinese symbolism around it. Ranging from Chinese characters written in Hanzi symbols that symbolized what was said over the English translation, as well as other symbols like a Chinese dragon.

"This must be the place," Guy said, with his stoic demeanor, as he opened the door.

The two walked in and passed by a planter in the entrance hallway. The restaurant had a Chinese theme to it, with reddish-orange flooring and pillars, as well as Chinese dragon symbols on the walls right by the tables in the dining area with plates and napkins set up there.

Except one thing, it didn't look like they were expecting anybody to come and dine that night. Oh no, not the case for that night.

A couple of guys were just hanging out and talking. One looked similar to Joe, as maybe it was someone who is sort of an underling to him. Another was just a random thug, as well as what looked like one of May's girls.

"Oh shit," one of the thugs looked over at the duo coming in. "We got company here."

The two male thugs, as well as the female thug, and then from behind, a tall and muscular thug appeared wearing a white tank-top and red pants. It turned out that it was Andore.

"Hey, you two ain't got no business coming in here," one of the thugs said as he tried to poke Haggar's muscular chest. "So get out of here, before we…"

But then Haggar grabbed the thug by his hand and then twisted him, as he started howling in pain. He then delivered a hard clothesline right to him. Just then, several random Skull Cross thugs came out, through the entrance and through the kitchen area, as well as the restroom area.

Guy looked to Haggar and signaled to him as he looked up at the ceiling and then tilted his head towards the entrance/exit door and then looked up at the ceiling once again. Haggar figured out what he means and then mouthed "go" to him.

Guy looked towards several thugs, as he looked in front of him and then turned around behind him. He gave them all a signal of "come on!" Every thug started to approach him. When he was being surrounded, he quickly leaped and then went over another thug and then got to the main entrance area. He signaled to them once again as they all started to walk towards him. He quickly opened the entrance door and then jumped right to the ladder nearby.

As he climbed, he looked down and saw that some of those thugs followed him outside.

"He's going to the roof, let's get him!" One thug said.

Guy continued to climb to the roof as he saw that a lot of them were ready to follow him. One guy reached and made contact with his right red and white Nike shoe, but Guy stomped on his hand. The thug tilted backward from the ladder, but quickly regained balance as his right hand went back on the rung again. It wasn't long until Guy had reached the rooftop.

Meanwhile, back inside, Haggar was alone as he stood before a man who stood nearly 8 feet tall. It was none other than Andore. This wouldn't be the first time that these two would cross paths. Haggar even dealt with other members of that family.

Haggar looked right toward Andore and said, "Andore, when are you going to learn crime doesn't pay?"

"Andore will smash you," the gigantic man said in a German accent.

Haggar smiled a bit. What was funny was that moments ago, he had run into two familiar ladies and they had talked about him and his brother. Maybe getting into wrestling would be a step in going straight.

But it wasn't time to reflect on that, as the big guy charged right towards the mayor and delivered a hard right hand to his face. Right when Haggar dropped to the ground, Andore jumped up and delivered a hard elbow drop.

Andore then picked him up and then lifted him off the ground and started choking him. Haggar looked right at the big man in the eye, as he had trouble breathing. The only thing he could do was try to hold his breath, as he put one thumb to Andore's right eye and then the other to his left eye.

Andore screamed as he let Haggar go. Haggar fell to the floor, but he didn't care. It was right then when Haggar got up and then rushed towards Andore and gave him a hard tackle. He delivered a hard punch to his face while he was on the ground, but Andore quickly shoved him off. He picked Haggar, but rather than choke him, he threw him right towards a dining table. He watched as the mayor fell right onto a table, causing it to knock over and break a couple of chairs in the process.

Haggar slowly crawled as he tried to catch his breath in the process. Andore went right to the mayor's feet as he lied face down and crawled. As Andore got closer to grip Haggar's ankles, Haggar kicked Andore right in the chest. Haggar turned his body around and got to his feet and tried to get a second wind.

"So you want to play that game, huh?" Haggar said as he stood before Andore with his stance.

But there was no time, as he rushed right towards the tall and muscular thug and delivered a hard lariat.

He then lifted him over his head in a gorilla press slam position and then lifted him a couple of times over his head. He then threw him but in that moment, Haggar jumped up and flipped over as Andore was falling upside down and grabbed him to drive Andore to the ground. But he was not done yet, as Haggar went right side up as Andore was still upside down and then jumped up and did a spinning piledriver to the ground.

It was enough to take the wind out of Andore. Haggar knew that he wasn't dead and was sure to encounter him and/or Junior later, but it was time to have a word with the owner.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the rooftop, Guy stood there with his arms folded and crossed as he awaited the other Skull Cross thugs to meet him at the top.

The lights in Chinatown were so garish, with lights on in the buildings and the rooftop having an advertising sign for some kind of tea with a kabuki figure right against the neon light sign for the brand.

Several thugs stood before Guy and were ready to jump him. Guy popped his knuckles. A few thugs rushed right towards him, but he was ready as so much energy was on display as he laid a few punches and kicks right to the bodies of the criminals.

A few others were carrying weapons, ranging from knives to lead pipes, even to glass bottles that they broke before heading to the roof.

This was nothing knew for him. He had been through this before. The difference now was that he had learned a few extra moves, as well as dealt with different types of fighters in his own little training quest. These guys were just street criminals. Some may be skilled, as he even dealt with some not just with the Skull Cross Gang, but also the Mad Gear Gang. However, these guys had nothing on him.

In just a quick moment, he jumped up and spun around to deliver a hard hurricane kick to each of the thugs around him.

He wasn't done, though. Two thugs who were carrying a lead pipe and a chain were ready to rush him. It didn't seem like these two were that smart, as they all saw their cohorts drop from Guy's wrath.

The man with the chain swung right towards Guy, who backed up and ducked at each attempt. Guy quickly dove out of the man's way and then dashed right towards the wall and jumped right on it and quickly turned around to deliver a dropkick right to the man's face causing him to fall backwards.

The other man with the lead pipe then swung right to Guy's back. Guy fell face down on the ground as the man swung the pipe right to his back.

"That Kung Fu shit ain't gonna work here," the thug with the pipe said.

"There's one thing you should know," Guy said as he quickly turned his body around and then kipped up and then kicked the pipe off the man's hand.

"Kung Fu is a Chinese martial art," Guy said. "This is Bushinryu Ninjutsu, which is Japanese, and I am Japanese." He stood there with a glare in his eyes.

He delivered some quick punches right to the man's torso, ranging from his chest and his stomach and then topped it off with a hard left hand palm strike right to the man's face. He sent him flying right towards the neon sign of the tea advertisement, causing sparks to fly and Guy was certain that the man was shocked, literally, in the process.

The man that Guy dropkicked before saw that happen and looked right at the ninja and said, "Screw this. You win." He then took off running.

Right then, it was time for Guy to check on his friend to see what was going on in the restaurant.

* * *

Haggar went into the kitchen area of the restaurant. Oddly enough, there was pan on the stove, which looked something was cooking. As well as some smoking coming out of a pipe near the stove. He even saw some food on cutting boards and such. Could someone have been cooking for Skull Cross members?

Right through Haggar's eyesight stood a man with a long braid over a mostly shaved head. For some reason, the man wore a green toga and beige shorts and also boots. He then turned around and had a handlebar mustache and sunglasses. It was Wong, another Skull Cross lieutenant.

Oddly enough, there was something about this man that reminded Haggar of when he, Maki, and Carlos went to Hong Kong on their adventure out of the country. In fact, he reminded him of Won Won, who ran things in that part of Hong Kong for Mad Gear.

"Ah, our own mayor decided to crash my special dinner," Wong said. "I also heard that you had damaged my restaurant out there. You might have to pay for the damages."

Haggar scoffed. "I don't have time to hear your complaints. I heard that you are a member of the Skull Cross Gang. I am here to get some answers on where to find your leader. I am going to bring you guys down for good."

"I was just making dinner for my guests outside," Wong said. "Now that we have power over the city, I don't have to worry about other gangs or mafia to come in anymore, because we have all overthrown them."

Haggar realized what had happened with the other gangs and syndicates. Mad Gear had their own brand of power, which meant that Skull Cross had their own brand of power as well.

"You ruined my restaurant and you decided to crash my party," Wong said. "For that, you must pay."

He then picked up his prayer beads that were on a counter and started swinging them around. "It's showtime!"

Wong swung his right hand with the beads on there to try to whip Haggar. He managed to get him right on his left shoulder. Haggar laid a body blow right to Wong's gut and then tackled him and then also wrapped his arms around him to deliver an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Once Wong landed on his back, he sat up and got to his feet and quickly rushed right towards Haggar, whose back was turned towards him, to lay a tackle of his own into him.

Once Haggar fell to the floor, Wong stood there as Haggar slowly sat up, but that gave Wong a window to jump and do a roll attack right to him. Haggar fell to the ground once again.

Normally, a guy like Wong shouldn't be much of a problem for Haggar. In fact, he had dealt with different threats before. Haggar wouldn't think it's because of his age, because he had dealt with Callman earlier. Even though he was a tough customer, Haggar managed to take him down. But the likely cause of Haggar's current vulnerable state was when he dealt with Andore moments ago. The way that giant just threw him around was just enough to a bit of wind out of him.

Wong approached Haggar once again and then picked him up to his feet. He then wrapped the prayer beads around his neck. But rather than strangle him, he dragged him over to the stove and then turned on one of the burners and then grabbed Haggar by his ponytail and then pushed his face towards the stove.

"This is for ruining my restaurant and for ruining our celebration dinner!" Wong said as he tried to push Haggar's face into the stove, but Haggar put his hands right at the edge of the top near the knobs. He was not about to be burned if he could help it.

Out of nowhere, the door to the kitchen had opened. Wong quickly turned around and saw a martial artist in a red outfit. It was none other than Guy.

"What the hell?" Wong yelled and then let go of Haggar. Guy quickly went in without any word and jumped up and delivered a hard dropkick right to Wong's face.

Haggar knelt right before the stove and then turned around to see Guy, who then let out his hand to help his friend get up.

"Thank you so much," Haggar said.

"No problem, Mike," Guy said.

Haggar and Guy looked right at Wong, who then got up.

"Let me handle him," Haggar said. "He's mine." Guy nodded.

Haggar rushed right towards Wong and delivered a hard clothesline right to him. He used all of his strength to pick him up over his head and then threw him right to the floor. Wong slowly got up, except his back was turned towards him this time. Haggar used this opportunity to grab him from behind and put him in a Full Nelson to deliver a Dragon Suplex. It flipped Wong over as he lied there face down. He tried to look up, but then his head dropped to the floor once again.

In only a minute, he regained consciousness. Haggar picked him up and then pushed him right towards a wall adjacent to the backdoor of the kitchen. Guy stood right next to Haggar.

"Okay, tell me and tell me now," Haggar growled. "What exactly are you guys planning? You said that this was supposed to be a celebration dinner or something like that."

Wong took a deep breath. He had no choice but to crack.

"Okay," Wong said. "One of our other lieutenants was bringing in some weapons. Black had paid a large sum of money to some arms dealers in other parts. We were going to use those arms to take out anybody who gets in our way. That whole bombing today was just to send a message to you and the MCPD to let you guys know that we're in charge now."

Wong paused and took another deep breath. "You want more answers? There's a plant nearby that has someone in charge to let you know what else we're doing. It's a factory for Sims Inc."

"Sims Inc?" Haggar then realized where he heard that name. It seems that there is a building in Uptown Metro City that is for that company. Maybe it's a front for the Skull Cross Gang's base of operations.

"Anything else you might know?" Haggar said.

"That's all I'm going to say," Wong said.

Haggar nodded. He quickly let go. He felt like pushing the crooked chef to the ground, but he realized that he was not worth hurting some more after what he just went through.

Haggar and Guy went out the backdoor and through an alleyway. Out of nowhere, an MCPD cruiser rolled up. The window rolled down, as a woman with short blonde hair was in the driver's seat. It was Lucia. Dean was sitting in the passenger's seat looking at the picture from before.

"Hey, Mike and Guy? Is that you?" Lucia said.

"Yes, it's us," Haggar said. "We just got word about how there's a factory close by that may give us even more answers."

"Funny, that's where we are headed," Lucia said. "It seems that it's run by Sims Inc. In fact, I think it's only a block away."

Lucia put the car in park. She and Dean stepped out.

"Now that we're all here," Lucia said as she stood right before Guy and Haggar, while Dean walked around the front of the car to meet with the rest. "Let's go see for ourselves."

"Right," Guy said. "Let's finish this."

Dean and Haggar then nodded their heads and were off to scope out the factory.

As the quartet walked off, from a distance, the same man from before with purple pants and a green overcoat walked up close to the cop car. Stray popped his knuckles and went through the pockets of his coat and got out some brass knuckles for both of his hands.

"I'm coming for you, Dean," Stray said. "I'm going to finish what I started." He then gave an evil smile to the quartet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First thing I must say something that I forgot to mention in the previous chapter. I know it may seem a bit over the top for Lucia and Dean to have those powers, but keep this in mind, Final Fight shares the same canon as Street Fighter, where you have various martial artists throw fireballs, a man-beast who emits electricity, a yoga master who breathes fire, etc. You get the idea. Plus, they have those moves in the game.
> 
> Also, I wanted to have former Mad Gear members make a cameo. Poison and Roxy wanting to be managers for Andore and Andore Jr. makes sense because I think one of the Andores was Hugo in the Street Fighter games, while Poison is his manager. Oh, and like in my Final Fight 1 story, Poison and Roxy are female. I don't need to get into the big controversy surrounding those characters. In my mind, I like to think that Poison and Roxy are actually female.
> 
> Back to the cameo, I didn't want to bring everyone back. I can't just have Axl and Slash appear, or even the overweight guys like Bill Bull, G. Oriber, and Wong Who appear (I read that G. Oriber's name is Graham, which was I mentioned it in the dialogue). Same with some of the bosses.
> 
> One more thing, I kept on watching some long-plays and regarding Round 5, the second-to-last level, it starts off in a sewer. But if you go the route of either fighting Caine and heading to Chinatown, or starting in the sewer and getting out to Chinatown, you start that stage right near an alleyway.
> 
> Like I was doing for the previous chapter, I kept on studying the logic of bridge to dock and then studied the sewer to the entrance of the factory. The former seems a lot more plausible because I know that a bridge can separate from the land to an island. However, the sewer to the entrance of the factory doesn't make sense when you seen an alleyway with light-posts in the background. So it's unlikely I am going to do the sewer bit, unless I come up with something, like I did for the previous chapter and this one. For example, the fight on the roof. In the game, you go to the roof and to the restaurant. I decided to do it a different way.
> 
> Anyway, I will do the next one soon.


	8. Law and Disorder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang make a stop at a factory owned by the Skull Cross Gang.

The quartet had regrouped and met up in Chinatown. Dean and Lucia went to the Metro City docks to find out what it was they were smuggling into the city. While Dean just wanted to find the man who murdered his family, Lucia made an incredible discovery. It turned out that the Skull Cross Gang had smuggled some illegal firearms and the crates had the Sims Inc. insignia on them.

What did this all mean? Was that company working with the Skull Cross Gang? Who or _what_ exactly was Sims Inc, and what was their part in the gang? After all, Callman ran Club Sims. The boat that Drake captained was the S.S. Sims.

All that was known was that there was a factory in Chinatown that Sims Inc. runs.

When Lucia and Dean drove to Chinatown, Lucia had listened to reports on the radio that stated that some Skull Cross members were still out there, but Detective Sean Carter had declined in being interviewed for details surrounding the illegal weapons.

Once again, Dean led the way for the four to head to the factory. Maybe this was where Stray was hiding, but like Drake had told him before, Dean won't find Stray, it will be the other way around and when that happens, Dean better be ready. But Dean was more than ready. He felt that he had nothing to lose, so it was now time to face the man who brutally murdered his family.

The quartet walked down an alleyway. It was either that or go through the sewers to be discreet, but none of them wanted to go through all the filth that the sewers contained.

It was nighttime but like how the rest of Chinatown was, the streets were rather empty. The Skull Cross Gang was at large and the riots and attacks that occurred caused a lot of Metro City citizens to stay inside.

Dean walked ahead of everyone, with Lucia behind him to his right, Haggar directly behind him, and Guy behind him to his left.

"Hey, Dean, do you know where we're going?" Haggar said.

Dean just looked straight ahead of him and saw an intersection right past a couple of staircases in that alley. He heard Haggar and after a slight silence, he said, "yes, I know where we're going. The factory is close by."

Guy turned to look towards Haggar. "This guy must have done his homework on these guys."

"I still wonder how he knows so much about them," Haggar said. "All he's told us was that they murdered his family and that they tried to recruit him, but there has to be more than meets the eye."

"I know what his deal is," Lucia cut in. Haggar and Guy looked right towards her.

"But I think we should just not discuss this right now," Lucia said as she looked right at Dean. "He seems determined to take out the man who killed his family. But let's not talk about this right now."

As Dean passed the staircases, he looked towards his right as there was a manhole cover just about 10 feet away from him right and then to his left. On both sides of the intersection of the alley, there were two brick walls, but right to his left, there was a brick wall, but in just 10 feet, there was a metal wall. He looked right to the end of that path and saw a door, as well as some men hanging out by the door.

While Dean was walking down the corridor, Haggar, Guy, and Lucia were not far behind. Haggar then looked to his right and saw a man in what looked like a blue baseball uniform. He had the hat, jersey, tight pants and socks covering the bottom parts of the pant legs. He also had a baseball strapped to his back but one distinguishing feature was that he was wearing a hockey mask for some reason.

"What the hell?" Haggar said. Guy and Lucia heard him and then looked in the same direction he was facing.

"What the…?" Guy said.

Their reactions prompted Lucia to look behind her at the end of the alley which they walked through. There stood a man with a similar uniform, except it was green and white. Dean looked right in front of him. There stood a man in the same type of baseball uniform with the blue and white. With him were just a random thug with a vest and jeans, and a man who looked similar to Rick with claws.

"What is it with these gang members being so similar?" Guy said.

The guys in the baseball gear each pulled their bats from their back and started to tap the ground like if they were ready to bat and also tapped the bats to the palms of their hands. They even spun the bats a bit.

"Just where do you think you're going?" the one in the green said. The back of his jersey read "Hunter," which may be his name.

A couple of the baseball thugs closed in on the quartet. One of the ones in blue swung his bat right towards Haggar, but he quickly reacted by ducking and delivered a hard elbow to his gut. Hunter went right towards Lucia by swing his bat right to her gut, but she jumped backwards and dodged every attack.

She had thought of grabbing the bat to try swinging it right at his head, but the man was wearing a mask and a baseball helmet. If she swung it hard enough, it could knock him out, but she didn't want to chance it. So she spun around and delivered sweep attack and watched as he fell backwards.

The trio from before, with the claw-wielding man who may be connected to Dirk and Rick, one of Hunter's men, and the other thug were ready to jump Dean, who started to emit an electrical charge.

"Come on," Dean said and then put up a stance.

Lucia then looked towards him. She barely knew him, but for some reason, she has had his back throughout this entire day during this mission.

"Hey, Guy," she said. Guy then looked right towards Dean and the other criminals and then gave him a signal so that they could help him.

Haggar had his hands full with the other baseball thug, but then another one came in to try to help his fellow comrade. The criminal smashed a glass battle right onto Haggar's bareback, but rather than fall, he just quickly turned right towards the man, which caused him to jump. He should have thought of that before attacking the mayor like that, add to the fact that the mayor had a very imposing physique and it would be hard to take him down easily.

Haggar immediately grabbed the criminal and then threw him right towards the baseball thug as he fell right on him.

Dean, Guy, and Lucia handled matters with the other three Skull Cross thugs. It didn't take long for them to go down. It seemed that the other member of Hunter's crew, as well as the seeming protégé of Dirk and Rick put up much of a fight.

With the thugs down, the only thing that they saw at the end of the corridor of the metal wall was a door with an intercom and a little scanner and keypad to key your way in.

"Great, now how do we get in?" Lucia said.

"We could try to break our way in," Haggar said.

Guy knocked on the door. The door was made of some kind of metal. It didn't seem like it could break that easily. Even if they used hammers and such to break it open, it would take quite a bit to break the door down.

Haggar then turned around and saw three thugs walking towards them. One of them looked like G, but it was someone he didn't recognize. The other was Hunter, as he wore the green and white baseball uniform. Finally, the other person was Andore Jr. How he knew was that he dealt with the other one at the Chinese restaurant. That one wore red pants. Andore Jr., on the other hand, wore green pants.

Guy then turned to face the trio coming towards them. One of them was definitely familiar to him as he had dealt with them before. Lucia then turned around. She saw that she didn't take Hunter down completely.

The trio wasted little time in going after them. Dean had only one thing on his mind. He had a feeling that Stray was close. He didn't know for sure, but he felt it and Stray was the one person he wanted to take down.

Lucia rushed towards Hunter, who then ran right towards her and then slid on the ground as if he was sliding to home plate as he sent Lucia flying a bit. Once she fell to the ground, Hunter got out his baseball bat and then swung right towards the ground where she was lying. She rolled to one side and then when the bat went towards her again, she rolled to the other side. She let out a sweep attack to trip him.

It didn't take long for Hunter to get back to his feet, but Lucia then jumped off her feet to deliver an arching kick to his head. Even with the baseball helmet on his head, Hunter went down. Much to her surprise, she saw a card slide out of his pocket. She quickly picked it up and looked at it and surmised that it may be a keycard to get into the factory.

Guy took the lowly thug down without breaking a sweat. He then saw that Haggar had his hands full with Andore Jr. He even recalled that when he fought against the Mad Gear Gang that those guys were no slouch. Andore Jr. picked up Haggar with all of his strength and held him by his neck. Guy run right behind Andore Jr. and then delivered a dropkick. Because of that, the big guy turned around and tried to deliver a hard punch to Guy, but after all the fights and training he went through, Guy quickly dodged by moving his body backwards and ducked at each punch attempt.

Haggar seized the opportunity and grabbed Andore Jr. and delivered a belly-to-back suplex to the concrete. He seemed like he was down. Haggar didn't want to wait until he would get up. He was sure that he would meet Andore Jr. and his brother again soon. For all he knew, he might meet the other relatives again, especially after fighting them in the cage at the Surf Bar years prior.

Lucia went right towards Dean, who just stood by close to the door and was thinking about everything that went on through the whole day. It wasn't that he didn't want to help his comrades. He knew that they could handle them. He just didn't want to suffer fatigue in case he were to fight Stray. He felt the aura nearby. It was time to settle the score.

"Hey, Dean," Lucia said. "Get out of the way, I need to test this."

Dean got out of her way as Lucia swiped the keycard down the slot to see if the door would open. She backed up and Dean also saw that the door slowly opened.

"Mr. Haggar! Guy!" Lucia called to their attentions. "The door is opening!"

The two went right for the door to the inside of the factory. Right in front of them, the corridor of the factory had a greenish blue texture to the walls and floor, and the floor had read "O-6" on it. The walls had counters set up with pipes going across and were secure enough as some things were screwed against them.

In between the structures with the pipes were doors with yellow and black stripes bordering around them, likely signifying that those doors are for personnel only. But that didn't matter to them. They were crashing the party. Haggar and Lucia were there to see what the Skull Cross Gang was up to and what the deal with this secret factory in the middle of Chinatown was. Usually factories like this would have been somewhere in Uptown Metro City or even in the Industrial Area, where Guy had been to deal with Rolento years prior. Hell, he even met him again in recent years.

"So what is there to search here?" Guy said. "It seems awfully quiet here. At least in the factory that I went to a while back, this military guy had some of Mad Gear's minions to come after me and fire came out through the floor."

"I don't know," Haggar said. "But there is something off about this place."

"Maybe you're right," Lucia said. "It just doesn't seem like the Skull Cross Gang is actually in here. But maybe there might be some employees here who might help us."

"What makes you so sure that they would tell us anything?" Dean said. "For all we know, they are likely on the Skull Cross' payroll."

"It's just a suggestion," Lucia said. "Besides, I'm not sure if there are a lot of people here right now. It's kind of late, if you ask me."

"You'd be surprised that there are factory workers who work late," Haggar said. "I don't just mean security and maintenance. There might be staffers who are working the late shift."

Just then, an alarm sounded. The siren started to blare. They spoke too soon. Many Skull Cross members came out. Several lowly thugs, as well as protégés/sort-of-underlings to some of the Skull Cross soldiers like May, Dirk & Rick, Hunter, and even Joe came out. The guy dressed like Hunter was dressed in orange and white, the guy who looked like Joe had dark blue hair and had a maroon outfit. The girl assassin looked almost like May herself, except her outfit had a darkish pink shade to it and she had dirty blonde hair.

"Man, how many people do they have that are similar to their main underlings?" Haggar said. "And I thought Mad Gear just went overboard with hiring just random criminals from the streets."

But it wasn't time to analyze similarities in the Skull Cross members. It was time to go to work. All four of the vigilantes went ahead and took down each of the criminals their own way. Lucia went ahead and handled May's protégé, while Guy went ahead and dealt with the guy who looked like Rick. Haggar just took down the lowly thugs without breaking a sweat.

Dean, on the other hand, just took on the Joe lookalike. Even though Dean towered over that guy, the Joe guy was too quick and even jumped onto Dean to deliver a few headbutts. But that didn't stop Dean from unleashing his electrical aura and giving the thug a slight shock. It wasn't that powerful, as the thug quickly got up. Dean charged his arm up and delivered an electrical uppercut, which sent the Joe guy flying in a total shock.

More low-level thugs tried to come at Haggar, but all of his strength overpowered them as he sent them flying towards the door close to the main entrance. The broken doorway revealed what looked like a mini-computer lab with some machines inside, as well as a long piece of paper hanging out of a printer close to the wall. Right next to the printer were a couple of glass tubes with some unknown contents inside.

 _What is their operation here?_ Haggar thought. But nothing of note was in there, so he left the room.

The thugs just got up and ran away from the other three as Haggar rejoined them. They noticed the other door was broken down.

"Hey, I think we just go check out what's in there," Lucia said as she looked right at the doorway.

"You three go on ahead," Dean said.

Lucia turned right towards him. "What?"

"Listen, all of you," Dean said. "You've all been a great help, but I should handle some other things alone right now. I will meet you guys later."

Haggar stepped in. "Are you sure about this?"

Guy then stepped in. "Dean, we're all in this together. I know what it's like to want to want to handle things on your own. But I have a bad feeling right now about this."

Dean looked up right at them. "I promise I will meet you guys in a bit. You three go and check out what's in there."

Dean turned around went down the corridor to the check out the rest of the factory. Lucia looked right at him, while Guy looked but then started walking towards the door, as did Haggar. Lucia continued to look on at Dean walking away.

"Lucia, come on," Haggar said. Lucia then turned around and joined the mayor and the Bushin ninja to check out what was behind that doorway.

What choice did Lucia have in that moment? Even though she barely knew Dean, she felt something for him. She had found out earlier that same day that she had investigated the murder of his family. Sure, she didn't deny his attractiveness, with his good looks and muscular physique, but what was really getting her was that he was determined to take these guys down. But she also knows that he lost his family. This was not the right time for anything like that, at least not for him. So the best thing for her to do was let him go off on his own.

Dean walked down the corridor and went through another doorway, which lead into another a hallway. There were similar pipes on the way, but the lights were a little dimmer and also flickering, and there were windows in between that overlooked the rest of the factory.

The only thing on Dean's mind was that he senses that Stray was near. How he could know was anyone's guess, but with all the research that he conducted on the Skull Cross Gang, as well dealt with personally, it was time to settle his own score. Sure, he wanted to take down the head of the gang to ensure that Skull Cross was done, but Stray was his prized bull.

With Dean coming close to fulfilling his goal, he was determined that if anybody tried to mess with him, he would take them down in an instant. He only wanted to deal with Stray. When some thugs tried to shake him in that hallway, he shocked them and then smashed their heads against the windows. That was how determined he was.

The moment he walked out of the hallway, he was now in the main factory area, with a lot of open space. Dean stood on a platform with girders and grilles on them. There were also hooks hanging. It was all empty. There weren't even any employees present. But he looked around, nonetheless. He didn't say a word. He just walked to search until he saw someone hanging onto a hook and was being guided towards Dean. The person who held onto the hook jumped off and landed on a grille on the platform.

"Well look what we have here?" the man turned out to be Stray.

"I was wondering when you would show up," Dean said.

Stray chuckled and shook his head a tad. "Funny, I was wondering the same thing."

"Screw you," Dean said. "I'm going to finish you and the rest of you. You guys are finished."

Stray chuckled once more. "You see that's where you're wrong. You may have taken down our men, whether it was dumb luck or uncompromising skill, but your fight ends tonight and I'm going to enjoy this."

"I didn't want to join you at all, but you never should have gone after my family," Dean said. "You could torture me all you want, but my family had nothing to do with this."

Just then, Stray started downright laughing. "You don't get it, do you? You realize that if you cross us, refuse to join us, we do whatever it takes to show that we mean business." He paused for a bit. "By the way, you should have seen your younger brother and sister. They squealed and whimpered when we handled them. They were a total mess."

The anger went through Dean's veins as his face was started to brood with such rage hearing this man talk about his family's murder like it was no big deal.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" Dean said as he rushed right towards him, except Stray had swung a right hand right to Dean's chest.

Dean fell back a bit and noticed a little red stain on the left side of his white muscle shirt. It was clear to him that Stray was wielding those particular brass knuckles that he used to torture him that night. But he also knew that he had nothing to lose, but he wasn't about to go down without a fight.

He got back to his feet and looked Stray deep in the eye, even though that guy was wearing sunglasses. Dean tried to rush him again, but Stray was well ahead of him, as he dashed right towards him to deliver a hard right hand to his face.

Dean felt a little wounded on his left cheek. Any inches higher, he would have taken out his eye. He got up once again. He wasn't about to give up, but unbeknownst to Dean, he stood close to a staircase. Stray kicked Dean, which sent him rolling down the stairs. As luck would have it, Dean landed right on the landing. Stray then jumped down to landing and then kicked Dean right in the gut as he started laughing.

"You know something, Dean," Stray said. "I got to hand it to you. You managed to survive this whole fight against the rest of us. I almost wonder if we should have killed you that night. I know that you are a good fighter, but you're." Pause and then kicked him again. "Not." And then stomped on him stomach. "That." He then picked him up and then delivered a blow to Dean's abdomen. "Good."

Dean started to bleed on stomach, as his white muscle shirt gained some more bloodstains. Just when Stray was about to deliver a left hook, Dean quickly ducked and grabbed him by the legs, even right into Stray's overcoat, and then slammed him, almost like a spinebuster, to the stairs. Dean was about to lay a right hand to Stray's face, but Stray immediately blocked the attack by grabbing his hand and then pushing him on off of him.

Stray then saw a large wrench where they were before and then picked up. Dean went back upstairs to take him on, but was met with a wrench to the gut. Stray then whacked him in the back while he was bent over.

"How does that feel?" Stray said.

Dean slowly crawled on the grille. Stray then kicked him while he was down. He then picked him once again and said, "I'm going to finish what I started, and then I'm going to take down your whole crew. After I'm through with the mayor, Skull Cross will definitely run this city!"

Stray then walked Dean towards a machine with a motor, as it had a fan on it. He put Dean's body down against it and Stray started it up and then pushed Dean's face towards it. He knew that Stray was enjoying this. The way that psycho joked about killing his family was enough to provoke him. He even got him to bleed and was rather bruised. But it was not enough for him to give up. He felt that there was still some fight left in him.

Dean quickly got his body up and then pushed Stray's body against the machine. Stray's back was towards it and saw that parts of his green coat and purple started to get chopped off. He then kicked Dean in the midsection and then shoved him off.

Stray then picked him up and then threw him a few feet a way from him.

"I'm going to end you right now," Stray said as he pushed his coat a little open and then got out what appeared to be a knife, but it had a sheath covering the blade. He quickly removed it and then held the blade in the way that's used to stab.

"You'll see your family very soon," Stray said. "Isn't that what you want?"

Dean lied there and started to have visions of his family. Whenever he fought in the fight clubs, he did it to support them. He had thoughts of whenever he, his father, and his younger brother did stuff. As well as his mother and sister and when they went on trips in the past. He then had the same grisly images of when he found his family slaughtered. Only his mother was barely alive and managed to say something to him before her final breath.

For that, he quickly got up and then the electrical aura started to charge and right when Stray was about to stab him, Dean quickly grabbed him by the shoulder from a few feet and then emitted an electrical shock towards the killer. Stray was taken aback from this. Dean went ahead and delivered a three-punch combo and right at the fourth, he shocked Stray once again and quickly delivered an electrical uppercut.

The shocks did not electrocute him, as Stray was still breathing as he lied down.

"How the hell did you do that?" Stray said.

"Remember when you tortured me? Remember you had to 'give me a jump'?" Dean said standing over him.

It didn't take long for Stray to realize what he meant. He may have been shocked, both figuratively and literally, but he barely moved as he attempted to get back up.

However, Dean went right on him and then delivered a few hard punches to his face. He wailed on him with both his right and left fists as he saw blood squirting right from his face. Even his sunglasses fell right off of his face in the process.

"This is for my father!" One right hand. "This is for my mother!" One left hand. "This is for my brother!" Another right hand. "This is for my sister!" Another left hand.

He then stood back up and then raised his right foot. "And this…is FOR ME!" He then stomped his right foot flat on his face so hard that his shoe had blood on it. He stood right over Stray's dead body looking right at it with a blank stare. He knew it wasn't going to bring his family back, but at least he felt that their deaths were avenged.

Meanwhile, Haggar, Guy, and Lucia went to check out the other area of the factory. It turned out the door lead to what appeared to be a lab with the mainframe computer in it.

"My god, what are they planning?" Lucia said.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Haggar said.

Just then, more Skull Cross thugs came in. Guy looked up and saw them.

"Shit, we got company," Guy said.

"But we need to see what they're doing," Lucia said.

Haggar added, "You look at whatever they're trying to plan. Guy and I will handle these assholes."

Lucia went to one of the computer monitors and it looked like on the screen that there was a map with marked locations. Other things on the screen indicated that maybe there were other countries that Skull Cross was trying to negotiate a deal with. After all, they did have some weapons smuggled. But were the weapons for them or for someone else? What exactly was their plan?

It didn't take long for Haggar and Guy to take down the other criminals. However, Lucia wondered if she could try to stop their plan. Maybe some of their plan was backed up on floppy disks, but then you have the computer machines. It seems that Sims Inc. isn't just working with Skull Cross. They are one and the same and Sims Inc. is just their front. They had to put a stop to this.

Lucia went and picked up some of the disks, as she believed that their most important plans were backed up.

"Hey, I have an idea," she said. "You two destroy these computers."

"Are you sure about this?" Haggar said. "Don't you want some evidence?"

"I think I got some right here," Lucia said as she held up the floppy disks.

Haggar saw a hammer lying around, and Guy saw a lead pipe lying around. They both picked it up and started smashing the computers. There were four of them and each of them was destroyed.

"Hold up, what are you doing?!" The trio then looked right at another doorway and saw a man in a white coat standing there.

"We're taking down your business," Haggar said.

"Well, if it isn't our mayor," the man said. "You're not going to stop us."

"Who the hell are you?" Guy said.

Lucia then saw the man's nametag and it said "Earl Simmons, software engineer of Sims Inc."

"My name is of no importance," Earl said.

Lucia said and then flashed her badge, "I'm a detective with the MCPD. You're under arrest."

Earl chuckled a bit, whether it's because he couldn't take her seriously with that outfit or likely that it was because he had something up his sleeve.

"I don't think so," Earl said and then pulled out a gun, much to everyone's shock. "Good night, everyone!"

He let out three shots. Haggar, Guy, and Lucia quickly ducked. Good thing he was a terrible shot.

He tried to fire again, but then CLICK! It turned out he was out of bullets.

"Shit!" The computer technician then started to run.

"Don't let him get away," Haggar said. "Let's go!"

The trio then ran after him into the main part of the factory. However, a lot of oil drums started to drop towards them. Haggar and Guy went after the man. Lucia would join in on it, but she had disks in her hand and didn't want to drop them.

The two men said the oil drums dropping like flies. They tried to avoid each of them. However, they saw Earl smiling at them and standing close to another computer that connects to some of the machinery.

"Mike, I have a plan," Guy said. He then jumped the rail and quickly made a move to find an opening to where no oil drums would smash him. He made some quick moves to not get hit until he reached the machine where Earl stood.

Guy then grabbed a hammer that was close by and then quickly smashed the machine, which stopped the oil drums at a moment's notice. Guy sighed in relief.

"Okay, you got lucky," Earl said as he cocked his pistol, as he reloaded it with another magazine. "But now you're going to die."

Guy wondered why he didn't just cut and run right then. The same could be said about the technician. But that didn't stop Guy, as he delivered a hard crescent to send the gun flying from his hand. Earl went ahead to pick it up and was ready to aim at him, until he heard a voice say "Drop it!"

Guy looked up and saw Carter come from behind him and point the gun at him. "Freeze, you're under arrest."

At that moment, Haggar and Lucia caught up to them.

"Sean, what are you doing here? How did you find us?" Lucia said.

"I remember you said to check out Chinatown, so I did," Carter said. "We also got word about the factory from Dave, as when we got him earlier today, he sang like a canary. At some point, we picked up some Chinese restaurant owner and then some guys who were hanging around near the restaurant filled me and the others in on the factory that was close. So I thought I'd find you here."

Haggar and Guy realized that the cop meant that some of the former Mad Gear members tipped him off.

"Well, good thing you showed up," Lucia said. "I found some evidence here." She saw her two partners. "Oh, by the way, these are…"

"You're Mayor Mike Haggar," Carter said. "I'm Detective Sean Carter. I am Detective Morgan's partner."

"Nice to meet you," Haggar said.

"I'm Guy, I helped save Metro City before," Guy said as he shook Carter's hand.

"Nice to meet both of you," Carter said.

Just then, Lucia realized that there was one missing member of their team.

"Hey, you guys, we got to find Dean," she said.

Right when she said that, everyone walked around the factory until they saw him standing over Stray's body. Everyone got close to him and saw how bloody and bruised he was, as well as had bloody knuckles from all the punishment he delivered to Stray.

They were shocked at the sight of Stray's dead body.

"Hey, Dean, are you okay?" Haggar said.

Dean nodded but had a blank stare on his face. "I think so."

"Come on, let's get going," Haggar said. "I think I know where to find the headquarters of the Skull Cross Gang."

Haggar came to a realization that there was a building in Uptown Metro City that was the headquarters for Sims Inc. With Lucia having filled him in about the weapons on the boat and now coming to the realization that Sims Inc. is a codename for the Skull Cross Gang, their headquarters was in the city. There was no time to lose.

They all walked down the alleyway. Haggar, Guy, Dean, Lucia, as well as Detective Carter all walked down there to Chinatown.

Lucia told everyone to get in the squad car that she used earlier.

"Hey, Sean, I have one question for you," Lucia said. "How on earth did you get Dave to sell his friends out like that?"

"It wasn't easy, but because people in the department figured he was crooked," Sean said. "Let's just say that he realized that he wasn't as crazy as some of the people in the gang. Plus, he personally told me that you kicked his ass. I don't know about you, but I had a feeling that he has it bad for you."

Lucia sighed, scoffed, and chuckled a bit. "No, I kind of sensed that he had his eye on me. But for some reason, he couldn't keep his hands clean. I was the first to sense that he was dirty, remember?"

"Yes, I do," Carter said. "Anyway, your team is waiting for you. If you need help, be sure to call us."

"Will do," Lucia said as she headed for the driver's seat.

Haggar rode shotgun, while Guy and Dean sat in the backseat. Guy felt a slight determination to end it all. While Dean looked at the picture of his family, even in the dark.

 _Is my fight finally over?_ He thought. _I avenged your deaths, but why do I feel this way? I don't feel that it's over yet._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was the fifth round in the game. I will explain a few things.
> 
> While I did put in the mini-office bit just because, the other door led to another path you could go through in the game. If you destroy all those computer machines, for some reason you can skip the boss fight, but if not, you still fight Stray. Also, I decided to add the bonus round bit, which included an original character, as Earl Simmons was not in the canon.
> 
> Also, Lucia finding disks is supposed to represent the time period. I think that this game took place in the early-1990s, particularly either 1991 or 1992. There were no flash drives or anything like that at the time. Floppy disks were the hardware.
> 
> Speaking of which, Earl Simmons is a reference to DMX, as that's his real name.
> 
> Now for the part about the fight with Stray. I used two things as inspiration. One, I used a fight sequence in one of the stories from Matthew Drury's Streets of Rage Saga. I recommend you read that book somehow (As well as "Bare Knuckle: Ghost Precinct"), especially to beat 'em up fans, particularly Streets of Rage fans. The other was the final fight sequence in "Death Warrant," the Jean-Claude Van Damme film. That fight was probably one of the more gruesome deaths in this story.
> 
> Also, the part about Haggar mentioning underlings for some of the random mooks, it's kind of a joke because this game actually used palette swaps for the random enemies. It was common in the Streets of Rage games. Plus, sometimes gangs will have just someone who random members will follow, but not enough to run a whole set. Ergo, why I had some of the palette swaps be like protégés to some of the random enemies.
> 
> Anyway, I'm getting close to done. I'm considering doing another interlude chapter before doing the one on the final level and then I will do an epilogue. Stay tuned!


	9. Interlude: News Reports

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I forgot mention. Regarding the bit involving Hunter and his men from the previous chapter, some of that was inspired by the bit with the Baseball Furies in The Warriors.
> 
> Also, this is just an interlude chapter. I will get to the climax and epilogue soon.

**SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN…**

It was afternoon in a little village somewhere in Japan, probably Okinawa, a woman and her elderly father were watching television. On the walls featured pictures of that woman and a familiar face. The familiar face was Guy and the woman he was with was Rena Genryusai, Guy's fiancé. They were set to marry sometime soon. Outside, a car had pulled up right next to a motorcycle and another car.

On the TV, there was global news program. The anchorman stated the report in Japanese.

_["News reports had stated of a terrorist attack somewhere in Metro City, New York. A riot had occurred because of it. Authorities have stated that it was the work of a gang. But with the fall of the Mad Gear Gang, who also happened to have other chapters in Europe and Asia, the gang seems to be using some sort of means to make their name known."]_

The TV had some interviews with some Metro City citizens. Being that they were recorded earlier in the day and submitted to various stations across the board, the reports on the Japanese news show were subtitled.

"I just happened to be going on about my day and then a blast occurred," a man said.

"All hell just broke loose of a sudden," a woman said. "I won't be leaving my house when I get home."

Suddenly, a man and a woman walked in through the door carrying bags of groceries. One man had bronze skin and long brown hair and was wearing a blue button-down shirt and blue pants. The woman had blonde hair and had a ponytail set up close to the top of her hair. She was wearing a red outfit with a black leather jacket. The man turned out to be Carlos Miyamoto and the woman was Maki Genryusai, Rena's sister, both of whom took part in the fight against the Mad Gear Gang a couple of years prior in Eurasia.

Sometime after their battle, Carlos and Maki had started dating. Carlos had moved to Japan to be closer to Maki. Being that he is half-Brazilian and half-Japanese, he was able to talk in Japanese and learned more of the language overtime, even though he and Maki can speak English.

["Hey, what are you watching?"] Maki said.

Carlos then saw the TV and then noticed the coverage of the riots and attacks. He knew where that took place. Maki then saw the footage.

["Wait a minute, Metro City is in trouble, again?"] Maki said. She was well-aware of the problems that the city had gone through with the Mad Gear Gang, but this seems a bit heavier. Mad Gear wouldn't pull any terrorist attacks, not like this. Plus, she became friends with Haggar after he had gone with Guy to Japan and met his fiancé, as well as the rest of her family. She had only met Cody at some point when she wanted to battle Guy herself. She didn't really know the man but had only heard about him.

Rena added, ["I just remembered something. Guy is in Metro City as well. He went there to visit the mayor. I hope he's okay."] She then started to put her head down.

Maki went to comfort her sister.

The old man, who was their father, had said to his two daughters. ["Don't worry. Guy knows what he is doing. I taught him well. Zeku taught him well. We shouldn't worry about him."]

Carlos then added in Japanese, ["Guy and Mike will be fine. I just hope they have some extra help."]

When Carlos said that, he came to a realization about something, as did Maki. She then looked up at Carlos and signaled to him to get out by the door, as she implied that she wanted to have a word with him.

["I'll be back, you two wait,"] Maki said and then got up and headed for the door.

"What's wrong?" Carlos said in English as Maki stepped outside.

"I'm just a little worried," Maki said.

"Why? You know Guy is a tough guy, he can handle stuff on his own," Carlos said.

"I'm not worried about Guy, but I am worried for Rena," Maki said. "She knows that Guy has dealt with a lot of people in his own quest for the perfect fight, but terrorists? A terrorist gang, for that matter? This seems even bigger than what we had to deal with."

A pause occurred after she had said that.

"Listen, I am aware that Guy is capable of stuff, but sometimes my sister can be worrisome," Maki said. "I love my sister and I want to comfort her, but my main problem is we could have helped them out."

"Maki, there is just no way we could go back to America in time," Carlos said. "I know that if I was there, I would have helped Mike and Guy, but I think they probably have it all under control. Also, why are we talking in English out here? Your sister can speak it."

"Yes, she can, but I needed to make her not think we were talking about her," Maki said. "Her English is mostly just okay, not great."

"I see," Carlos said. "We should get back inside."

"You're right," Maki said.

They went back inside. They didn't want to stress over this entire issue.

* * *

**SOMEWHERE IN PARIS, FRANCE…**

It was now morning. Early morning, to be exact. A young blonde woman in her mid-20s sat on the couch in an apartment.

"Hey, Jessica, why did you turn down that guy last night?" a woman said in another room. "You know he wanted to talk to you. Why did you blow him off?'

The blonde woman was none other than Jessica Haggar. She was watching some coverage on the news as well. The news show was in French, but after studying abroad in France, she had picked up on some French.

"Jessica, are you listening to me? What are you doing?" the other woman walked in, who was a brunette and also American.

"Shut up, Rachel, I'm trying to watch this," Jessica said.

Rachel had her toothbrush in hand and was in a bathrobe and had a towel on her head. She then saw Jessica was watching the news. She saw that the report was talking about the attacks on Metro City.

"Wait, Metro City," Rachel said and then turned towards her roommate and friend. "Isn't that where you're from?"

Jessica nodded her head. "My dad is still the mayor over there. I just hope he's okay."

Rachel saw a lot of the footage. Riots were going on. Wrecked police cars. Burning buildings. Stuff that you would expect from terrorist attacks and riots.

"My god, this is some heavy shit," Rachel said.

"I know, and I thought that what I dealt with was bad," Jessica said.

Jessica filled her friend in about the problem with Mad Gear. She even saw some images of the Skull Cross Gang, who seemed even more vicious than Mad Gear.

 _Oh Dad, I hope you're okay out there._ Jessica thought.

* * *

**SOMEWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES, OUTSIDE OF METRO CITY…**

In a bar somewhere in the Midwest of the US, it was nighttime and a blonde man sat at the bar with a beer in his hand. The man's knuckles looked like they barely healed, like it hadn't been long since he had punched someone.

The blonde man turned out to be Cody Travers, who was traveling in other parts of the country looking for fights and other opportunities. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt with blue jeans and white sneakers.

He then saw the bartender turn on the TV.

"Hey," Cody said. "Can you put it on the news?"

He put it on a local news channel, where the report about the attacks on Metro City was being shown. For it to be shown in other parts of the globe, it was definitely more than a national story. It became global.

A young woman approached Cody, "Hey, big boy, you looking for a good time?"

"Not now, I'm watching this," Cody said with his eyes on the TV.

The news then started showing footage from an anchorwoman on the scene in Uptown Metro City.

"Thank you. From what I see, this looks to be the attack of a major threat. After the fall of the Mad Gear Gang, Metro City had been more peaceful, but this, this looks like the work of the Skull Cross Gang, whose leader had been broken out of prison."

The TV then displayed a mugshot of Black, as he had an eyepatch and muscular build.

"Marshal Black, a Vietnam veteran who somehow became turncoat, had been broken free. Nobody knows what else the plan of the Skull Cross Gang is. But at the moment, we were told about a shipment of illegal arms in a cargo hold."

"Who needs TV when I can give you the time of your life, sugar?" the woman said.

"I'm not in the mood right now, but I've seen you here before, so maybe next time?" Cody said.

"Whatever, man," the woman said. "I can find someone who is more man than you."

Cody continued to watch TV. He wondered if Mayor Mike Haggar was handling it this time. Who could be on his side? Last time he checked, Guy thought about paying him a visit. But who else could help?

 _Looks like I should pay Mayor Haggar a visit soon._ Cody thought. _I hope they take care of this problem._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for the interlude. I wanted to have some old faces make cameos.
> 
> Regarding Carlos and Maki, I kind of ship these two. Final Fight 3 took place at least a couple of years after Final Fight 2, so I could imagine those two getting together at some point. Because I am considering doing Final Fight 2, I might imply some attraction, but like for this one with Dean and Lucia, I am not doing a forced romantic subplot.
> 
> Also, with Maki wearing a leather jacket and having a motorcycle, it had been stated in an instruction manual for the Japanese version of FF2 that she was in a biker gang. Then it was just established that she likes motorcycles and stuff.
> 
> I also wanted to put in Jessica and Cody at some point. Regarding Jessica being in France, according to the lore, sometime after she and Cody broke up, she went to study abroad in Europe. Ergo, why she was in France.
> 
> I had to do some research about time-zones, which explains why it was Japan where Carlos and Maki were, morning where Jessica was, and evening where Cody was. I could only imagine that Cody was only a few states away and it wasn't that far behind in time.
> 
> I will get to the next one soon.


	10. For Metro City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was time for the four vigilantes to settle things with the Skull Cross Gang once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just thought I'd post both final chapters at the same time. Enjoy!

It hadn't been that long since Lucia drove the other three men out of Chinatown on the west side of Metro City to head out to uptown, where the last piece of the puzzle was to be found.

Could this be the end? That could mean different things. Though the quartet had survived the entire and night fighting the Skull Cross Gang in various parts of the city, who knows if they would even make it out of there alive?

Lucia drove through the empty streets of Uptown. It was rather late at night, but even in that part of town there would be something for people to do. But not on this day, as the riots had been more than enough to keep people inside. There wasn't even much going on out in Chinatown. It was a wonder that the food truck was even out there. But if Haggar and Guy hadn't encountered their old adversaries from the past, they wouldn't have gotten any clues as to any other Skull Cross lieutenants in the area.

"Okay, where am I going?" Lucia said as she looked around. The area had a lot of skyscrapers.

"I know which building it is," Dean said. "Just keep straight. I know where their headquarters is."

Even from the back seat, Dean was the navigator for this ride. Haggar, Guy, and Lucia already knew that Dean had a lot of knowledge of this gang, but to what extent? They already knew that they tried to recruit Dean, and that they murdered his family. But it seemed like he did a lot of research. It wasn't until sometime recently that they tried to make their presence known, even though they had enough power. The Mad Gear Gang ran the city, but even after Haggar was elected, they had tried to buy him out and used his daughter Jessica as a means to get him to play ball. But of course, they learned the hard way that you don't mess with the mayor, especially when it came to kidnapping his own daughter.

Lucia continued to drive until Dean told her to stop as they pulled up right in front of a tall building.

"This is the place," Dean said as he pointed to the building, which was in the center of the district. "Let's get going."

"Wait just a minute," Haggar said and then turned to the back seat to face Dean. Lucia put the car in park and did the same thing. Guy sat next to Dean and then looked right at him. It was dark, but the lights from the posts shined over them a tad. They could still see each other.

"Tell us something, Dean," Haggar said and then took a deep breath. "I know you told us some stuff. You told us that those guys killed your family. You told us that they wanted you to join them but you said no. But there is one thing that I want to know. How do you know so much about these guys? I mean I will tell you that I knew a bit about them, but not as much as Mad Gear. But you seem to know a lot about them. The areas where they operate and everything, as well as know the names of their members. I just want to know how and why you know so much."

Dean looked up and saw that everyone in the squad car was gazing right at him waiting for his answer.

"The only thing you should know," Dean said. "Is that if you want to get revenge on those who wronged you, you do whatever it takes to gain knowledge of your target. That's all I can say. Now let's get going."

As much as Guy and Lucia wanted to ask Dean some questions, they saw that he was in no mood to tell them more. Guy could relate as his whole motive to take part in this fight was to not only help his friend Mike Haggar, but also to destroy evil and also to put his new skills to use. Lucia, on the other hand, already knew a lot from what Dean had told her. He had confided in her earlier that day.

Lucia and Haggar got out of the car to let the other two men out of the car. The final fight was about to begin.

Dean led the way for the others. They all couldn't help but wonder what this man was all about. What was he like before his family was slaughtered? Did he fight only to support his family? If he was just a fighter, what was the Skull Cross Gang's interest in him? Guy even wondered the same thing, especially when he dealt with an evil dictator, but managed to have a disgraced professional boxer on his payroll.

As Dean led the way up a flight of stairs, Haggar led the way for the other three to follow him. Once they reached the top of the stairs, the lights from the posts shined over them. The corridor had a few planters with bushes on them, as well as light-posts in between them, as well as mini-lamps on the railings that overlook other parts of uptown, and then finally came the pillars on both sides that headed right to the glass door, which was the main entrance of Sims Inc's headquarters. Or is the headquarters of the Skull Cross Gang?

A few thugs stood there hanging out as they were walking up.

"So I thought, why shouldn't I become a leader?" one thug wearing an orange outfit was saying, who turned out to be G, while the others were Johnny, Billy, and Ray. "I always do things for you guys. I got some leadership qualities."

Johnny, Billy, and Ray all looked at each other with slight confusion.

"Are you serious, bro?" Johnny said. "I don't think of myself as a leader. Besides, all I want is to find out who killed my brother. But really, you aren't that good with money."

He paused a bit. "Don't take this the wrong way, because we do appreciate you buying lunch for us sometimes, but you don't got what it takes to be a leader."

As they all continued to talk, Billy looked up and saw the four vigilantes approach them.

"Um, guys?" Billy's British accent caught everyone's attention as they looked up and saw the quartet approaching them.

Ray saw them and the one thing that came out of his mouth was "Oh shit!" It was understandable, as many other fresh recruits, as well as them, got beaten up by them the whole day. It was a wonder that they were still standing.

"You know what, screw this," G said and then as Dean approached them. "Look, if you guys want to know anything, some of our other guys will mess you up before you get anywhere. But just know one thing, Black will come and will kill all of you."

But Dean wasn't about to have it. Those four guys were not worth the trouble at that point.

"Out of our way!" He pushed G and Johnny out of their way and just continued to lead the other three.

As they got closer to the door, one guy who looked like Joe, except he had a maroon outfit and blue hair. The other who looked like Rick came out through the automatic glass door. Then another guy who was dressed like Dirk joined in with the fold, and also Joe, as he was rocking the black outfit and had red hair.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?" Joe said and then looked at Lucia. "Hey, sugar, remember me?"

Lucia scoffed with so much disgust. Even out of the blue, another couple of baseball thugs came out. It almost seemed as if Hunter had his own team of baseball player thugs. Just like how Joe had guys who dressed so similarly to him. As well as Dirk and Rick, and also May.

But nonetheless, none of them were going down without a fight. Guy ran low and then delivered a sliding kick to one of the baseball thugs and quickly got up and spun around and delivered a hard elbow to one of the claw-wielding thugs.

Lucia didn't hold back when dealing with Joe, except this time, Joe's cohort joined in.

"Let me deal with him," Dean cut in so that he could deal with the other Joe.

Lucia went in and threw some kicks towards Joe, but to no avail, as Joe dodged each of her attacks. Dean tried to do the same thing to Joe's cohort, but he must have gone through the exact same training, as the other Joe dodged and then jumped to deliver a rolling attack.

Meanwhile, one of the claw-wielding thugs swung right towards Haggar a few times. Haggar managed to dodge the attacks. He may very muscular with quite a burly physique, but even in his wrestling days, as well as dealing with the Mad Gear Gang twice, he had enough quickness to dodge attacks. The moment the thug swung right arm towards him, Haggar grabbed him by the wrist and then delivered a hard right hand upward towards the man's elbow

SNAP! The claw-wielding thug let out a huge scream the moment he felt his arm break. But Haggar wasn't done, as he delivered a hard clothesline to the man's chest to send him flying. Right after that, Haggar noticed a slight cut on his chest. The thug didn't cut him deeply, as it was only a flesh wound.

But the man wasn't done yet. He went forth and tried to use his arm to cut the mayor open again. One thing that Haggar noticed is that while the criminal was able to use both arms in action, it seemed that he snapped the man's good arm. So Haggar went and delivered a body blow to the man's gut and then picked him up and carried him a few feet. He was right in front of the glass door. Haggar lifted the man over his head and then hurled him right to the right side window of the door and the man flew right through it, shattering the glass window in the process. He barely got his head up but then dropped. Was he dead or was he conscious? No one was certain.

The other thug swung at Guy a few times with his bat, but he was just too quick. If anything, the baseball thugs have gotten more outs than any runs so far. Guy had to figure out a way to strike them out somehow, as he saw that they were wearing baseball helmets and protective masks. He jumped up and delivered a hurricane kick.

Lucia had her hands full with Joe, as she was ready for his attacks. She threw a few quick kicks. Joe managed to dodge some, but a low kick landed in his gut, as he was a bit shorter than her. Lucia quickly acted and went right behind him to deliver a German suplex to him, knocking him out.

But not all of the criminals were down, as one of the claw-wielding thugs had sneaked behind her to try to cut her. In that very moment, she turned around and leaped and flipped to do a flying arching kick right to the man's head.

"Is that everyone?" Haggar said. He, along with everyone else looked around.

"It sure seems like it," Guy said.

Some of the criminals lied there hurt and ached in pain. Some others just got up and ran away. It was now time for everyone to see what was inside the building.

The four walked in through the glass door as it automatically opened. Much to their surprise, it looked like it could be a legitimate business as there was a front desk and some benches around. It was as if this area was the front lobby.

The lights were on. They were fluorescent lights and it was bright enough that everyone saw some signs. One door caught Dean's attention, as it said "KEEP OUT" and under it another sign said "EMPLOYEES ONLY." He could only hazard a guess that could be an area where the Skull Cross Gang handles their business. Several of the floors might be offices for employees of Sims Inc, but there elevators and stairs that would lead to the other floors. For it to say "keep out" had more to it than just saying "employees only," especially with both signs being on the door.

"Follow me," Dean said. "I think I know where to find some more what we're looking for."

They walked to the door. Dean tried to open it, but it was locked.

"Shit! Now we can't get in!" Dean said.

Lucia and Guy then noticed something right by the door knob. It appeared that there was a scanner right next to it. It became pretty apparent that behind that was where the Skull Cross' dealings took place.

"It seems like we need to have a card to get in," Lucia said.

"But where can we find one?" Guy said.

Haggar then saw that the man who he threw right through the window was barely getting up. The man was breathing slowly and was struggling to get up.

"Hey you! Over there!" Haggar yelled. The man turned right towards him. He would run away if he wasn't so hurt, but right before he could move, Haggar caught up to him.

"Hey, we need you right now," Haggar picked him up and carried him.

He pushed him right against the wall, while Lucia went ahead and searched him. She then felt something rectangular and plastic in one of his pockets. Without words, she went right to the man's pocket and grabbed it. She then promptly let go of him and then scanned the card. The door right in front of them slowly opened.

"Well what do you know," Lucia said.

The man lied there and faced them. He said, "You know you're not going to get away with this. Black is going to find and will kill you."

Haggar quickly faced him and replied with, "We're trying to save this city from scum like you."

Just then, everyone walked right in through the door, much to confusion of the beaten thug. It didn't take long to walk through a mini-hallway and found an even bigger hallway. Not bigger as in longer, but bigger as in wider. The hallway had green walls with wood panels for the lamps and green flooring with a long blue rug and another blue rug as well. On the left and right sides were glass cases of some odd-looking machines. Right past the first door on the left was a glass case that had a couple of odd-looking rifles and submachine guns. There was even a sign on the back of the case that talked about those weapons. Some other weapons were in glass cases across that hallway as well.

"What the hell is this place?" Lucia said.

"It looks like this is where their real headquarters is," Haggar said.

Guy didn't say anything, but it made him wonder if the Skull Cross Gang may or may not have any connections to this group called Shadaloo that he dealt with. The machines and weapons were among the clues to make him wonder.

Dean just looked around to see if there were any thugs around. It seemed kind of quiet in there for a bit. Lucia then noticed that one door.

"Hey, I'm going to check out something," Lucia said. "I'll catch you guys in a bit."

"We'll be waiting," Haggar said.

Lucia used the same card from before to open the door. She walked in and saw that it looked like a mini-lab, with computers, as well as TV monitors with camera footage on them, likely the security feed. On the corner was a water cooler. She had enough stuff to use from the factory, but then came something on one of the TV monitors: an elevator door opening. It looked like it was right in the hallway outside. Then another feed had some thugs coming in through the doorway.

She quickly got out of there. Right when she got out into the hallway, the three men were surrounded. Lucia joined her team right in the nick of time. There was only one thing they can do. After what they had gone through the whole day, what else was there? But because they wanted this to be over, there had to be another plan.

Arby and Fat Jack had returned, as did Mona and Lisa, a couple of May's other girls. They all looked ready to fight. Out of nowhere, some other lowly thugs came in.

Haggar turned to Dean and did a head signal so that they could take on the two obese men. Lucia then signaled to Guy about the two women Skull Cross soldiers. Guy nodded his head.

Arby charged right towards Haggar, but he quickly reacted and dodged. He came up to the big man from behind and put him in a full nelson. He struggled in lifting him a bit, as he grunted a tad until he managed to get the fat man off his feet and then did a dragon suplex.

However, Fat Jack charged right towards Dean and succeeded in tackling him. The impact caused Dean to fly right towards one of the glass cases of one of those odd machines. Dean was still in a little bit of pain from the fight with Stray, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He got up and grabbed the obese man and his right arm started to flash a tad and delivered a hard electrical uppercut, which shocked the man.

Meanwhile, Guy and Lucia didn't struggle in taking down the two female assassins. They had dealt with those two before, as well as some similar women. By that point, they managed to know their every move. Besides, the only thing that was on their mind was settling the score. They didn't care about keeping them down.

And what do they know, as the end of the hallway, there were two elevators across from each other. Guy and Lucia went to the one on the left side, while Haggar and Dean went to the one on the right side. Dean pushed the button on the elevator, while Guy pushed the button for the one on his side. Lucia and Haggar noticed that the criminals were getting up and looking right at them. Through the doorway that they entered, more thugs were coming their way, including Andore.

"Shit!" Haggar said. "How long does it take for the elevator to come down?" He then faced Dean. "Hey, which floor should we find the main guy?"

Dean said, "The top floor."

Guy and Lucia heard what he said and knew where to go. In a matter of seconds, a beep sounded as the doors to the elevators on both ends opened. They wasted no time in getting on. Lucia and Guy noticed that their elevator was pretty spacious, as did Haggar and Dean.

The moment they got on, one thug got out a walkie-talkie and said "They're going up. They should be up there soon."

Through the speaker, a voice said, "Roger that. I'll make sure they don't get up there."

The thug said, "I'll get the others out. I'll sit back and wait for the fireworks and then we'll wait for you."

The voice then said, "Copy that, soldier. Just send some more reinforcements just in case."

"You got it," the thug said.

Who was that man talking to?

* * *

"Man, that was close," Lucia said and then plopped right towards the wall, while Guy pushed the button to go up.

Guy then looked right towards her, as she took a deep breath and used one end of the front of her vest to fan herself.

"Hey, you're a pretty good fighter," Guy said. "What style is your discipline?"

"I am self-taught in kenpo and other forms of self-defense," Lucia said. "I see you're pretty good yourself. Are you a ninja?"

"Why yes I am," Guy said, as he looked right at the ceiling, as he sensed that something was coming their way.

Lucia looked at him a certain way. "What's wrong?"

Guy responded, "Brace yourself."

As they were going up, a thud was heard at the top of the elevator. From above, the access panel opened and in came a couple of men who looked like Joe, except they were dressed in green and had gray hair.

"Shit, not these guys again," Lucia said. But she wasn't about to hold back, neither was Guy.

But the one thing that separated these guys from Joe and the other ones like him was that they weren't as skilled. One of them tried to jump right onto Guy, who then spun around and delivered a hard elbow attack. He then grabbed him and then delivered some hard knees to him.

Lucia dashed a bit towards the other Joe lookalike and delivered a hard punch and elbow. She then grabbed him and then smashed the man's head against the wall of the elevator. It was only then that the elevator had reached the top floor.

The door opened, as did the elevator that Haggar and Dean were on. Guy and Lucia exited. Haggar looked right inside.

"What happened there?" he said.

"Let's just say that someone hitched a ride," Lucia said.

"Well, whatever, we're here, we got to find the leader," Haggar said.

"I know where his office is," Dean said. "Follow me."

Where they were had a rather long window overlooking the rest of uptown Metro City, with gray pillars on the sides, as well as long red rugs on the floor. Haggar and Guy were having memories of when they went to the top floor of the Mad Gear headquarters. Even Belger's own inner sanctum was pretty spacious for a crime boss, as well as that hallway to get to him.

It was awfully empty in that area. The one thing was where they could find the office of Marshal Black, the Skull Cross Gang's leader. Dean led the way down the hall. While the hallway was pretty long, it didn't take long to reach his office. A sign on the door said, "KEEP OUT." The office was at the end of the hallway.

There wasn't a special lock on the door as they went right in. Dean then turned on the light. The office was rather spacious, with some skull and crossbones flags on the walls, as well as a giant skull with crossbones display right above the desk and window overlooking the city.

"Damn, where is he?" Haggar said. "I wanted to give him a piece of my mind."

Guy looked around and saw some photos of what looked like old war pictures, as well as a man with an eye-patch. There was even a professionally done picture of a military man with a beret and an eye-patch.

"Hey, Mike," Guy said. "This guy reminds me of Rolento. Remember him? He was with Mad Gear."

Even though Haggar didn't personally deal with him, he was familiar with the military man of the Mad Gear Gang. In fact, he was familiar with every member, but it was Guy who went one-on-one in their battle against Mad Gear.

"He does, do you think that's the man we're looking for?" Haggar said.

"It has to be," Guy said.

"It is him," Dean said. "That's Black, the leader."

Lucia then looked at the picture. She remembered earlier that day when the riot occurred when some of the Skull Cross members broke someone out of jail. She remembered that that same man was being helped escape.

A sound erupted from the outside. It sounded like a propeller, like maybe a helicopter was flying nearby. All four vigilantes looked up and then proceeded to look out the window of the office. A white helicopter ascended right in front of them. The pilot then turned the helicopter to its side as it started getting closer. All four of them looked a lot closer to see the man in the chopper and he happened to be dressed in military gear and was wearing a red beret, and to top it off, he had an eye-patch as well.

"It's him," Dean said. "I'm going to handle this myself."

"No," Guy said. "Let me handle him."

The other three looked at him with a bit of confusion.

"This is my fight," Dean said. "I will finish this."

Guy then looked around and saw an elevator on the side of the office.

"No, you have done a lot," Guy said. "I can do this. Besides, the man is evil and I destroy evil. I know what kind of man he is and I have dealt with my share of different types of fighters. I will handle him."

Haggar turned right towards his friend. "You sure about this?"

Guy nodded his head and then proceeded to head towards the elevator.

"Hey, Guy," Haggar said. Guy turned around.

"Be careful up there," Haggar said. "We'll meet you in a bit."

* * *

Right when Guy went up the elevator, sounds were heard from the hallway outside. The other three went to go check. It turned out that more Skull Cross members were outside waiting for them.

The elevator door opened on the rooftop and then Guy walked around and saw the helicopter descending for landing. The moment it landed, the same man from before, Black, got off. The man was muscular and tall and was wearing a military coat with shoulder pads and had an ascot near the collar and had a crop in his hand.

Guy just stood there with his stoic, yet icy stare, as he awaiting his battle with him.

"Well," Black said as he slammed his crop against his left hand. "I expected there to be more of you. I have heard that you and some others have been causing my men some trouble today."

Guy continued to stand there in silence.

"Not much of a talker, I see," Black said. "I was actually hoping to fight the man who managed to kill my right-hand man, as well as the lady cop who got one of my men arrested as well as my shipment seized. To top it off, I also wanted to see what the mayor is made of. After all, he did take down the Mad Gear Gang, twice at that."

Black then paused for a bit.

"But Belger only wished that he could gain power through his wealth and can have his men do what they want by getting the mayor in their pockets," Black said. "But sometimes you just need to show everyone that you're willing to take a stand to make yourself heard."

"I would only guess that you would want to just kill my friends," Guy said to break his silence.

"While you are right about that," Black said. "But for all of you to singlehandedly take down my operations, with your fists no less, I feel that it would be a waste to just kill you on the spot. What are you, some kind of ninja? I could use some ninjas and assassins in my organization. Even though you took down most of my men, there is always room for rebuilding."

"No, you are evil," Guy said with the icy stare in his eye. "And I destroy evil."

"I see," Black said. "Well, in that case, you leave me no choice."

Right then and there, Black then took off his jacket and ascot, revealing that he was wearing an open vest underneath for some reason. His bare chest had a large scar across it, as well as scars on his shoulders and also had a belt buckle of a skull with crossbones.

"Just one more thing," Guy said. "I know a man just like you who wants to make his own army and rule his own utopia."

Black then laughed at that comment. "You're not talking about Rolento Schugerg, are you? I know that man, and while he has some ideals, I tend to believe that power should be achieved by getting people to bow to their knees any way you can make them."

Black then got into a fighting stance. Guy did the same thing, as he was ready to take down the leader and boss of the Skull Cross Gang. It was now time to end it all.

Black started to swing his crop a few times, as Guy dodged every attack, until Black swung it to the left side of Guy's torso and then let out a huge palm strike and then spun around to deliver something akin to Haggar's spinning lariat, which then knocked Guy down.

It was too early, as Guy got up and went right towards him to deliver a couple of punches and then a blow to the gut and finally a kick to the face. Black backed up a bit after those attacks and shook his head a bit. He then started to do his spinning attack once again, but Guy dashed and tried to do a sliding kick. But Black thought a head and jumped and then swung his crop downward right to Guy's head.

He then picked up Guy to his feet and then grabbed him to throw him right to the pavement. But Guy quickly got up and then grabbed him and then shoved him right to the ground to deliver a few punches while he was down.

Guy jumped up and flipped backwards and got into another fighting stance as Black then got up.

"So you want to play that way, huh?" Black said. "You're pretty good."

Black then reached into the inside of his vest. "But I got a few tricks of my own."

Black then got out a few knives and started to throw one. Guy immediately ducked. Black threw another and Guy jumped up and flipped forward as he got closer to him. Black held onto the third knife and held it like it was a combat knife and then swung his arm like he was about to slash it across his chest. He barely missed, as Guy quickly backed away and Black barely ripped a part of Guy's red gi with the blade. Guy flipped backwards and then dashed right towards him to deliver hard spinning heel kick, which then knocked Black down a bit.

Black then got up. Guy jumped up and was about to do a flying elbow attack, but Black had his own ideas. He then elbowed Guy in the gut pretty hard. Guy put his hand right on his stomach. It wasn't enough to stop him from fighting, though, as Guy tried to deliver a few punches, but Black countered by grabbing him by his hand and then got him to bend over and then delivered a few hard knees to his chest and also face. After that, Black then flipped him over.

But Black didn't think that was it. He then got Guy to his feet and then dragged him towards the tail rotor of the helicopter.

"You know, I was impressed by your ability," Black said. "But you left me no choice."

Black grabbed Guy by his hair and then drove his face towards the tail rotor.

"It's time to end this," Black said and then let an evil laugh. Guy barely struggled to keep face from the rotor blades but he was so close that he wondered how he would manage to get himself out of this.

"Hey! What are you doing?" a male voice said causing Black to turn around towards where the elevator was. Guy used that opportunity to duck under the helicopter's tail and then spun around to deliver a sweep attack to trip Black off his feet.

Guy quickly dashed out of there to get away from the tail rotor. He then looked down at Black in a fighting stance and gave him a signal of "Come on!"

So much fire was burning within Guy at that moment, as he had the right moves under his belt to take this man down. Black got up and then saw right by the door that Haggar, Lucia, and Dean were standing by.

"After I'm done with him," he said right to the other three. "I will make sure you won't get out of here alive."

He then got out what looked like a remote detonator. He then pushed a button. "Let's see if you can get out of here in five minutes!"

Right after he said that, Guy went right towards him and grabbed him. He yelled out, "Bushin Musou Renge!" and then delivered several hard punches, elbows, knees, and kicks multiple times. He did it so quickly that Black had no time to react or counter his moves. Guy then delivered a hard and quick attack to Black's midsection that he dropped to the ground the moment he did his Oboro attack.

Lucia, Haggar, and Dean quickly got into the helicopter. Lucia leaned right towards the pilot, as did Haggar.

"Listen to me, I am a detective with MCPD Special Crimes Unit," Lucia said. "You are to get us out of here shortly after our friend comes on. Do I make myself clear?"

The pilot then nodded his head the moment she said that.

Guy then stood before the beaten Black and then turned around to head towards his comrades to get out of there as soon as possible.

But then Black barely moved and found the detonator and then got up to his feet. He then looked towards everyone in the helicopter with an evil smile. Haggar and Lucia signaled to Guy, who then turned around and went right towards Black, who was standing in front of an electrical transformer. Guy yelled out "Bushin Gourai Kyaku!" and then delivered several punches, elbows, and kicks in such quick succession. He didn't have the same amount fire from when he did his previous combo, but it was still effective. Right when he delivered his front back-flip kick and quick side-kick, he sent Black flying right into the transformer, where he saw as the electrical current started to come onto Black. He stood there and watched Black got electrocuted right before he dropped to the pavement.

Guy then noticed the timer on the detonator. There was so little time left. He raced right to the helicopter and got in.

"Let's go, now!" Haggar yelled as the chopper started to ascend right from the rooftop of the Skull Cross headquarters, which was fronted as the Sims Inc headquarters.

As they flew away, the building then started to explode from the top floors. Was this Black's plan all along? Was he going to bomb his own headquarters? Maybe after he was broken out of jail, he was going to leave so that he could lie low somewhere where there was no extradition. No one really knew what his plan was.

But that didn't matter. At some point, the light in the sky started to emerge as the helicopter landed somewhere down the ground. Some people came out and saw the wreckage of the building as it was up in flames.

Right when the helicopter landed somewhere in the street, Haggar, Guy, Lucia, and Dean got out of the helicopter and looked at the remains of the building. A lot of the building's parts were at the ground and on fire.

Guy looked up and around and said, "Well, that's all wrapped up. Case closed."

Lucia then looked around as well and then said, "But the city is in shambles. It looks pretty bad now."

Guy then looked towards Haggar. "Well, that might be a job for Mayor Mike Haggar, huh?"

Haggar sighed a bit. "Thanks for reminding me, Guy. You don't have to tell me."

Dean looked around and then started to walk away.

Haggar then turned around and said, "By the way, Dean. What do you have planned now?" And then saw Dean walking away. "Hey, Dean!"

Dean then stopped and then turned around. "My fight is over. But I won't forget that I owe all of you so much. You really helped me in this and I will repay you someday."

"Good luck, Dean!" Haggar said. "You'll always have a home here in Metro City."

"Hope to see you again somewhere sometime," Guy said.

"Thanks, see ya," Dean said and proceeded to walk away.

Lucia looked on and then started walking towards Dean, much to Guy and Haggar's confusion.

"Dean, wait," she said.

Dean then turned around to face her as she walked quickly towards him. She then got a piece of paper out of her pocket.

"Here," she said as she handed the paper to him.

"What's this?" Dean said.

"This is my phone number and my address in case you ever want to call or write to me," Lucia said and then got out another paper. "This is also so that you can contact the mayor if you want to."

From the distance, Guy and Haggar watched the two talk to each other.

"You see, I told you she was sweet on him," Haggar said, with Guy replying with a nod.

Lucia looked right into Dean's eyes. "Come back someday if you get the chance. We'll be waiting for you. Feel free to call me or Mayor Haggar, or write to us."

Dean looked right at her and then a minor smirk rose on his face, for many reasons, as he started to see why Lucia was so quick to help him. It wasn't just that. She, along with Haggar and Guy helped him in his fight. He then shook Lucia's hand in the process, as Lucia started to smile a tad.

"Thank you, Lucia," Dean said and then proceeded to walk away.

Lucia then walked about to Haggar and Guy as they all watched Dean walk away to who knows where.

"So he's gone, just like that," Haggar said.

"He's okay," Lucia said. "He just said goodbye to his past and it is going to take some time for him to learn to live again."

"I guess that's right," Guy said.

Haggar smirked a bit. "Yeah, but I think he'll make it."

They all stood there and saw how much in bad shape that part of uptown was. It was going to take some time to get things back to where they were, but Haggar was going to find a way to fix this problem.

Just then, another police car pulled up in front of where the trio stood. Out came Detective Carter from the passenger side.

"Sean, what a surprise," Lucia said.

"Yeah, I heard the explosion," Carter said. "I was wondering if you guys were alright. I was surprised that you're still here. Where is the other guy? Is he okay?"

Haggar added, "He's fine. He just went off and did his own thing."

"I see," he said. "Anyway, you guys want a ride?"

Even though Lucia drove their car to that area, she was pretty beat from everything. So for that, she said "Sure, we would all like a ride. I need a major rest."

"So do I," Haggar said.

"Me too," Guy said.

Lucia handed her partner the keys and he got into the driver's seat, while Lucia rode shotgun, and Haggar and Guy sat in the back. What a battle they just went through. They now needed to relax after everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that was the chapter for the final round. Let me explain some stuff.
> 
> I felt that Guy was due for a proper boss fight and I also felt like Black was the perfect opponent for him.
> 
> I will note that for the ending, I had to combine each of the quotes from the characters. Just letting you know, whoever gets the final blow on Black in the final level, they are the ones who talk to Dean as he walks off. I think it also applies if you're playing in multiplayer mode. There are also different lines of dialogue for each character's ending. I must also say that an alternate ending suggests that Dean's fight is not over, but that usually depends on what you do. But I wanted to the happy ending for him.
> 
> I also gave more hints to Lucia's attraction towards Dean. Like I said, I ship the two, but this wasn't the story to do a story on them. Maybe I will a story on those two down the road.
> 
> This isn't the ending to this story, by the way, as there is an epilogue. Go check it out!


	11. Epilogue

Several news reports were covering the entire story about the Skull Cross Gang and their terrorist attacks on Metro City.

_"We have gotten more reports about the explosion that occurred in uptown Metro City last week. One body that was found was identified as Marshal Black, a Vietnam veteran who had committed a lot of criminal acts since his time in the military. It had been speculated that he was the true leader of the Skull Cross Gang. The Skull Cross Gang, who had a partnership with the Mad Gear Gang years ago, had taken part in the terrorist attacks in the city which led to a full-scale riot."_

Another news report stated the following:

_"In other news, several Skull Cross Gang members had been arrested for their involvement in the terrorist attacks last week. David Walker, a policeman for the Metro City Police Department, was arrested on a corruption charge as he had been working with the Skull Cross Gang. Detective Lucia Morgan had told news sources that he had some involvement in some auto theft rings, as well as planting evidence on members of other gangs to arrest them. She had also speculated that he had something to do with helping out Skull Cross leader Marshal Black."_

Another news anchor stated, _"From what we understand, several members of the Skull Cross Gang were found at what was left of the Sims Inc headquarters. Many members were arrested on charges of smuggling illegal weapons into the country, as well as auto theft and running a chop shop. One lieutenant was found dead at a factory in Chinatown. It was Laurence Strader, better known as 'Stray,' who was among the few that were dead of the Skull Cross Gang. More on this later on."_

* * *

**A FEW WEEKS LATER…**

At Metro City Hall, Haggar, who had cut his hair much shorter than before, sat in his office reading the reports of the ongoing news story surrounding the whole Skull Cross Gang situation. Just then, his phone rang.

However, someone had already picked up. "Hello, Metro City Hall, this is Mayor Haggar's assistant Janet, how may I help you?"

"Hello," a girl with a Japanese accent talked. "May I please speak to the mayor? My name is Maki."

"Just a minute," Janet then cut over to Haggar's office. "Hello, Mike, someone on line one wants to speak to you. She said her name is Maki."

Haggar then looked up and said, "Put her on."

The call then went through. "Hello, Maki, it's been a while."

"Yes, it has," Maki said. "I heard about everything that happened."

"Everything is okay," Haggar said as he turned on his chair a bit. "Guy helped me out, along with two other people. Anyway, how are you and Carlos doing?"

"We're doing fine; Rena was very worried about Guy last week." Maki said. "But I told her that he knew what he was doing. Carlos is doing fine, too. We're helping my father and my sister out."

"Well, Guy should be out there soon," Haggar said. "He just flew out last night. Hey, if you and Carlos want to come down, I can arrange for that. You guys can stay in the room where Carlos slept in when he stayed with me."

"We would like that," Maki said. "We'll let you know when the time comes. Anyway, I just wanted to check in. Hope you get the city back in order."

"I will, thanks, Maki," Haggar said and then hung up.

It wasn't long until a couple of MCPD detectives walked into Haggar's office. They were none other than Lucia and Carter, whom were dressed in different types of police uniforms.

"Lucia, Detective Carter, how great is to see you," Haggar said. "You look ready for your ceremony."

"Please, Mayor Haggar," Carter said. "You can call me Sean."

"Well, in that case, you can call me Mike."

"Mr. Haggar," Lucia said. "I never got a chance to tell you, but I thank you so much for clearing that corruption charge for me. It was hard dealing with that."

"No problem, Lucia," Haggar said. "I know a good cop when I see one. It's tough out there in Metro City."

Carter then interrupted. "Mr. Haggar, or Mike, or whatever, I just also wanted to say that I was a fan of yours during your days with the CWA. Also, can you sign my copy of your book for me?"

"With pleasure," Haggar said, as he got out a pen and signed the book.

Then out of the blue, Janet walked in and said, "Mr. Haggar, there's someone here who would like to see you."

Just then, a young blonde woman and a young brunette woman walked into the office.

"Jessica?" Haggar said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see you," Jessica walked in past the two detectives who were standing there and then looked towards the other woman. "This is my roommate and friend Rachel."

Rachel then put out her hand. "Hi, nice to meet you." She then shook the mayor's hand. "Jessica has told me all about you."

"Really?" Haggar said and then looked to his daughter. "You could have told me that you were coming."

"I wanted to surprise you," Jessica said and then saw the two detectives. "Wait, Lucia, is that you?"

"Jessica, wow, it's been a long time," Lucia said.

Haggar then stood up. "Wait, you two know each other?"

Lucia said, "Well, I am an old friend of Cody's and I knew that those two dated a long time ago. So yes, we knew each other."

"Well, Jessica," Haggar said. "Lucia and Sean here are getting awarded for helping bring down the Skull Cross Gang."

"Wait, I just thought of something," Lucia said. "You and your friend should come."

Jessica and Rachel seemed surprised at this sudden invite.

"I would love to, Lucia, but…" Jessica said.

"But nothing," Haggar said. "You two can come with me. The ceremony starts in an hour."

Then something even more unexpected came in, as a familiar blonde man walked in through the office doors, as the two detectives and the two young women looked up. Jessica and Lucia had looks of shock on their faces, while Haggar's eyes widened a bit.

"Hello, Mike." The man said.

"Oh my god, Cody?" Haggar said.

Jessica slowly tried to back away a bit when she saw him.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it? Just wanted to visit an old friend," Cody said and then looked around. "Hi, Lucia." And then saw another familiar face. "Jessica, is that you?"

Jessica then looked up with a look of concern on her face. "Hello, Cody." She then looked away.

Haggar said, "Cody, this is definitely a surprise."

"I've been around," Cody said. "I even heard about you guys fighting this major gang in the city. Just like old times, huh?"

"Listen, Lucia and her partner are being awarded today," Haggar said. "We were just on our way out."

Lucia then cut in. "I would like for him to come as well."

"What?" Cody said.

Lucia said, "Look, I know what you had been up to, but we all know that you're still a good guy deep down."

Jessica even looked at her ex-boyfriend and started to agree with Lucia. She knew that even though they didn't part on the best of terms, she still cared about him deep down.

"Cody," Jessica said. "Can I have a word with you?"

Cody then nodded his head and then walked out of the office. Jessica and Rachel then followed him out there.

Haggar then looked at the two detectives. "Lucia, are you sure about this?"

"I'm positive," Lucia said. "I know about all the trouble he got himself into, but I still believe that he is a good guy deep down. Besides, it would mean a lot of if an old friend of mine were there to support me."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Lucia," Carter said. "I remember hearing about how he got into fights a lot."

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Lucia said.

Outside of the office, Jessica had told her friend to go wait a bit in the lobby while she and Cody talked. Rachel nodded and agreed.

"Cody, before you say anything," Jessica said. "I just want you to know that even though we broke up on pretty bad terms, especially when you went to jail, I still love you deep down. Even if we wouldn't get back together, I would still love for us to be friends."

Cody then smiled. "I would love that." He then shook her hand and then gave her a hug.

Later on, the ceremony took place. Both Lucia and Carter got their awards for helping bring down the Skull Cross Gang. Everyone applauded for their efforts in what they did. Lucia may have taken the law into her own hands in some ways, but she still had the law on her side and her partner actually helped them in the process. So he had a right to earn an award for it.

* * *

**SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN…**

Guy had arrived at an airport. Once he got off, he walked and then quickly noticed Rena standing there with her father, as well as Maki and Carlos.

"Rena!" Guy said and smiled, and he doesn't really smile much. He quickly gave her a hug.

He then noticed Maki and Carlos standing there. ["Maki, Carlos, how great it is to see you two."]

Maki then gave Guy a handshake and said, ["My sister was so worried about you a few weeks ago. But after you and I had fought, I never once doubted you."]

["That's the way of the Bushin, you should know that,"] Guy said and then saw Carlos. ["Hello, Carlos, it's been a long time."]

Carlos replied, ["Yes, it has. I bet you had quite a journey."]

Guy replied, ["You don't know the half of it. I'll tell you all about it later."]

Guy then walked off with his fiancé, his future father-in-law, and his future sister-in-law and her boyfriend. He was so relieved to be around them. But what does the future hold for him? For him, the fight is not over yet.

* * *

**ELSEWHERE, SOMEWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES…**

Dean had sat alone somewhere at a park as he sat on a bench. The park was kind of dead, as it was likely a school day and there were little people around. Some were even walking their dogs.

Dean then got out the picture of his family. It had been practically a month since their tragic demise. While he knew that they were no longer with him, as well as they won't come back even after he avenged their deaths, he found himself at peace. It will take him a bit to be completely at peace, but at least he had made some new friends in the process. He held onto the phone numbers of Lucia and Mike Haggar. He was also given mailing addresses as well.

 _Maybe I should give them a call sometime._ He thought. While there was nothing to go back to in Metro City, it wouldn't hurt if he were to visit at least a couple of friends that he made in the process.

He was even impressed with Guy's abilities. He even wondered if he should spar with him someday.

At the moment, he may not want to go back to Metro City. But down the road, there may be a chance. He shall see for himself.

He put the picture and the papers with the phone numbers and mailing addresses back in his wallet. He then got up and then walked over to his car and then drove off. Who knows where he'll end up now. The only person who knows is himself and it doesn't matter which way he'll go, he'll get there.

**THE END.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm really glad that I got back to this after quite some time. I will say that I put in a lot more detail in this one than I did in the story of the first game. I don't know about doing a revision of that one, but I'm not opposed to it. As for Final Fight 2, I am considering it. I may even start on it soon.
> 
> I will note that some of what I did was inspired by Matthew Drury's Streets of Rage Saga. Speaking of which, I wonder if it would work to do something like that for Final Fight. Anyway, it's just a thought.
> 
> I had planned on doing the epilogue like this. I thought it was fitting for Lucia and Sean to get awarded. I mean I saw it in Speed, as well as The Heat, so I wanted to do something like that. Also, I wanted Guy to reunite with his fiancée and her family. Also, the part about Guy and Carlos knowing each other, it appeared that they knew each other at the beginning of Final Fight 2. Dean's ending was very fitting for him, too.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this. Like I said, I may do Final Fight 2 soon.
> 
> Peace out, you guys.


End file.
